


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No.. 

Shelf.Al-ii3 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




JULIA CARTER ALDRICH, 

(PETRESIA PETERS.) 



HAZEL BLOOM, 



BY 



/ 



JULIA CARTER ALDRICH. 

(PETRESIA PETERS.) 



''Mother! O, holy music in the sound 
Of that dear word — Mother! O, visions sweet 
That crowd the mind and thickly cluster round, 
To drive out tempting wiles, and leave replete 
The soul's most lofty plans, and purest thought! 

* * * * * * * * * 
Could man have known the part divine, repressed 
Through youthful life, for noblest womanhood, 
When she should pass to dear maternity — 
Had he the Christ, in Mother, rightly known, 
Kind Heaven had spared the pains of Calvary. 
Through her the Grst of Heavenly love is shown — 
Through her, Srst glimpses caught of Christ, of God. 

B. F. Aldricb. 



^ 



BUFFALO: 

Charles Wells Moulton, 
1899. 






2781.8 



Copyright by 
Julia Carter Aldrich. 
1899. 



TWO COPlfb ?it.GCIV£D. 



(( MAn231899 




/*f r^i-s; 



^ ^ . /^ /I 



In memory of that sainted one, 

My Mother, 
This volume is inscribed to the 

Mothers— 

The Home-makers of our land, 

By one who has known 

The breadth and depth 

Of maternal hope and joy — 

Whose soul has continually drank, 

Thro^ all the years of 

Motherhood, 

From that well-spring of 

Blessing — 
Unfailing, hlial devotion. 

J. C. A. 



INDEX 



111 l^ iL-i i\.m 

The Weaver 


9 


Mystery 


11 


In Childhood's Years 


14 


In the City of Suffering 


15 


Heliotrope .... 


18 


Constancy 


20 


Estranged . . . . . 


22 


My Inkstand . . . . 


25 


History of One Life 


26 


Evening 


27 


Rondeaux 


29 


Solace of the Flowers 


30 


Regret 


32 


Hazel Bloom . . . . . 


35 


Life's Shuttle 


38 


Springtime' . . . 


40 


For Insomnia . . 


42 


Mother 


45 


Eoline's Dream .... 


48 


Our Own ..... 


52 


Wounded Faith . . 


55 


Destiny . . . . 


57 


Unclaimed .... 


60 



VI 



IKDEX 



Death 


61 


Mght-Blooming Cereiis 


64 


My Muse 


66 


We Never Know 


68 


A June in Childhood . 


70 


Uoldenrod 


74 


An Evening in June . 


75 


Yosemite 


77 


Blight or Blessing 


80 


0, For a Rainy Day 


82 


The Ureat Poet . . . . . 


83 


Love's Riches . . 


88 


Complainings .... 


90 


Questionings .... 


92 


Persecuted .... 


94 


0, Kindly Speak 


96 


He is Risen .... 


97 


The Christ .... 


99 


Feed My Lambs 


. 102 


The Kingdom of Heaven 


. 103 


Supplication 


106 


The Portrait .... 


. 107 


Out in the W oods 


. 109 


Unforgiven .... 


112 


The Evening and the Morning 


114 


The Unseen . . 


. 116 


Painting 


. 117 



INDEX. 



Vll 



The Christian's Armor 

To My Friend 

Hill-Crest Home 

Lilies of the Valley 

Pearly Shells 

Courage 

Trailing Arbutus 

Encouragement . 

Faith 

Nirvana 

Heredity 

Pebbles 

Words 

Mother 

Hands 

Endymion 

Calypso — The Lover's 

What is Love 

Sleighing 

First Love 

Man . 

Trust of Childhood 

Alone . . . 

Night 

Disappointment 

Love's Ideal 

A Legend of the Lily 



Pocket 



120 
121 
124 
135 
138 
140 
141 
145 
147 
149 
150 
152 
157 
159 
161 
163 
167 
171 
173 
175 
176 
177 
180 
183 
185 
186 
187 



Vlll 



IKDEX 



To James Newton Mathews 






190 


The Great Hereafter . 




. 191 


Late October 






195 


On the Beach 






. 198 


Hidden 






200 


My Robins are Gone 






. 202 


Winterbloom 






. 204 


The Old Home . 






206 


Thought . 






. 209 


Columbus . 






212 



HAZEL BLOOM 

YY' ITH warm desire to please the captious 

ones, 
Whose fervency the finished fabric suns, 
With ardent conjurations she besought 
The thronging sprites, that feed the loom of 

thought, 
To gather shining woof, from climes afar — 
From lands where all things bright and won- 
drous are — 
To seek the dame whose tireless hand doth hold 
The distaff yielding threads of fine spun gold, 
And bring the gathered treasures in to her. 
All sweet with far-fetched frankincense and 

myrrh : 
Instead of quest in distant lands for woof 
From near they brought, and with it sharp re- 
proof. 

**The glow and flame of thy desire 
Is lit by an unholy fire. 

(9) 



10 HAZEL BLOOM 

We bring thee shreds for needs of life 
With which its ways are ever rife ; 
Weave these as we shall bring them in 
(None leads with Lotus-charm to sin) - 
And when the web falls from thy care, 
Who needs takes self- apportioned share. 
If one is girt by it for storm, 
Or one lone home, made glad and warm — 
If one bruised heart finds through it balm, 
One groping soul, up -lifting psalm. 
Then, thank thy God that thou hast wrought 
The humble shreds that we have brought." 



HAZEL BLOOM 11 



7\ LL the earth's history 
V«) Is mingled n^ith mystery; 
Thrid its long pathways thro' Time's gathered 
pages, 
Struggle with theories, — delve as you will, 
Wrapped in uncertainty, mystery still, 
Baffling the lore of philosophy's sages. 

Wishes ungratified, 

Longings unsatisfied; 
Search is untiring and effort is eager. 

Reaching for aye for the far, unattained, 

Feeling the spirit to narrowness chained, — 
All we may know, to the ?^?iknown is meager. 

Yet, human pomposity. 

Rich in verbosity. 
Leads us afar, thro' the limitless spaces. 

Parting so boldly the cometal robes. 

Shows us their bodies, as infantile globes, 
Sportively seeking maturity's places. 

It measures Infinity, 
Questions Divinity — 



12 HAZEL BLOOM 

Talks of the nniverse at its inception ; 

Theory, feeling the pulse of the Earth, 
Tells us how long since the planet had birth 

And when we may look for its utter disruption. 

Yet Life's remote decimal — 

The infinitesimal. 
Puzzles the agnost for JSTature's great mother; 

Never a blade without fertilized germ, — 

Never a seed without blossoming term, — 
Each is a subsequent unto the other. 

******* 

Most wondrous, mysterious. 

Throned and imperious. 
Mind, in the beautiful temple of Being, 

Eules o'er its realm with absolute sway 

Till, broken and crumbling, the structure 
of clay, 
Then swift on the wings of the silences fleeing. 

Thought, strained to intensity, 
Eanging immensity. 
Asks for their home — for the spirit's bright 
heaven ; 
A speck in the universe — our little earth, 
'Mong millions, all grander and greater of 
girth — 
Will God's central glory to this one be given? 



HAZEL BLOOM 13 

Ah ! Safely He has hidden it, 
From earth-gaze forbidden it : 
Humbled and weary the bold Thought, return- 
ing, 
Nestles down closer to God's written word; 

By grief's parching thirst its sweet foun- 
tains are stirred; 
Its pages yield balm that will soothe the heart's 
yearning. 

There, Heaven comes near to us, — 
Those who were dear to us. 
Safe in its mansions — we'll question not 
where, — 
Live in the light of an Infinite Love ! 
Faith sweetly whispers — "They beckon 
above, — 
The loved ones, who've left us, are waiting us 
there." 

The hidden earth -histories — 

The sought-after mysteries 
Are veiled, but in blessing ; — we seek for them 
ever; 

Wisdom hath woven this mystical bond, 

Binding the soul to God's greater Beyond, 
Enlarging, enriching, thro' constant endeavor. 



14 HAZEL BLOOM 



TJ^ childhood's years, what dreamy days 
^In spring's soft airs or autumn's haze! 
How golden bright the sunset skies 
Where just beyond our heaven lies ! 
Each dawn the sun has merry plays 
With Eosy-mist, who veils his rays 
To shield us from his glory blaze, 

While she paints morn such lovely dyes 
In Childhood's years. 

We tread but joyrlit, sunny ways, 
Nor dream of dread, that is decay's: — 
No sorrow comes but quickly flies — 
No love is known that cools and dies — 
No crafty selfishness betrays 

In childhood's years. 



HAZEL BLOOM 15 



TN the city of suffering souls grow large, 

And money-greed languishing lies ; 
'Neath the hurrying feet, of God's messengers 
there, 
That pompous, old Selfishness dies : 
Ambition, so eagerly climbing to heights 

Where glory, alone, is the prize, 
Forgots his wild dreams at the shriek of distress 
And goes where Humanity cries. 

In the city of suffering, sympathies blend 

As valley rills, blend in a stream; 
The high, and the low, all forgetful of rank, 

Are thrilled by calamity's scream. 
There Wealth's jeweled hand and the toil-har- 
dened palm. 

Have neither a preference in claim, 
But agony ardently stretching them forth, 

Makes common appeal, in His name. 

*"There was a puff— a muffled roar, and the tower was 
literally rent by an explosion. A moment later the flames 
burst out thro' every rent and fissure, and the men, away 
up there, in mid air, fighting the fire, were cut off from the 
world below, by an outpour of smoke and flame, soon to 
become a mighty conflagration." 



16 HAZEL BLOOM 

In the city of suffering hearts grow warm — 

Aye, flame in the darkness of woe ; 
The spark God gave, from His infinite loye, 

Neath the hot breath of pain is aglow. 
There, swift to the rescue, goes valorous 
strength. 

Surprising the world with his deeds — 
There, Courage will struggle with death for a 
life. 

While yielding his own up, if needs. 

In the city of Suffering, Avarice hides 

In the gloomy old vault with his gold, 
Nor dares to meet Charity's love-lighted 
face, 

His own is so pitiless and cold ; 
There, cowardice, envy — all drosses of soul 

In the crucial test are consumed — 
Dark altars, once glowing with brotherly love, 

In the shadow of sorrow, relumed. 

The city of Suffering is Heaven's wide door 

For victims its horrors enthrall ; 
E'en martyrs have sung when the fagots blazed 
high — 

So ever He heareth our call ; 



HAZEL BLOOM 17 

And those who, with fellow-love prompting 
their deeds, 
Fought there, with the mounting flame 
fiends, 
Have wrought in the plan, for ennobling the 
world, 
With God's own, mysterious means. 

In the city of Suffering souls break the bonds 
That indolent selfishness forged in the womb. 
And lives, that were dwarfed by their mammon- 
cut groove. 
Find growth in Love's labor, and sunshine 
in gloom. 
"When raven-winged Sorrow sweeps over the 
land, 
An angel attends where its shadow may fall. 
And, out from its darkness, brings heavenly 
light, 
And faith, in the Wisdom, that's over us all. 



18 HAZEL BLOOM 



ThEEE'S a charm in its fragrance bewitch- 

ingly sweet — 
A something that binds with a magical spell; 
E'en silence, thro' this, to the heart can repeat 
The message that's sent in its purple fringed 
cell. 

'Tis an odorous breath, from the heavenly 
heights — 
An angel hand, beckoning to the bloom 
scented fields. 
Where the soul in its freedom may taste the 
delights 
That the garden of Paradise yields. 

Like childhood's sweet dreams of the holy and 
true, 
That float thro' Life's dusk in the ether of 
Thought, 
Or morn's rosy blush, melting into the blue. 
With tint of the beryl and amethyst caught. 



HAZEL BLOOM 19 

'Tis an exquisite messenger, given the heart, 
That winsomely speaks to the spirit, alone, 

And whatever sentiment sent, will impart — 
Will tell it so sweetly, in language its own. 

When souls must needs pass thro' Grief's word- 
less abyss. 
Then heart unto heart, through it, uttereth 
speech — 
Tne sympathy, seeking expression through 
this. 
Is told with a tenderness words never reach. 

If you've aught that's too sacred for words to 
express, 

Too tender to breathe in a wish or a hope, 
'Twill be fittingly draped in the delicate dress, 

And borne in the perfume of Heliotkope. 



20 HAZEL BLOOM 



HE Fates have decreed thou canst never be 
mine, 

Yet, constant, my soul turneth ever to thine 
With love that outreaches Time's cruel de- 
cree. 
Too holy the passion with others to name — 
Thoughts deepest and purest feed ever the 
flame, 
That burns on the altar, kept sacred to thee. 

As ocean in silence embosoms the light 
That beams from the gems in the crown of the 
night. 
Yet dimming its purity never, 
So thou, in my bosom a presence shalt be, 
As stars shining down in the depths of the 
sea — 
Unsullied thy brightness forever. 

Like a verdure-girt spring in the wide desert 
plains — 

Like the stroke, bringing freedom, by the riv- 
ing of chains, 



HAZEL BLOOM 21 

Aye, Life's every essence of pleasure 
Had been love's requital, that long ago morn; 
Still ever I'll count, (yet this rose has its thorn) 

Having loved, though I lost, as a treasure. 

Tho' hopes were all blighted that haloed my 

youth. 
And withered the flowers I deemed rooted in 
truth, — 
Tho' sunshine will brighten no morrow, 
Yet never accusing's deep bitterness stirs 
The heart, that would only pour joy into her's. 
And the tenderest soothing for sorrow. 

Her spirit dwelt ever in dreamy ideal, 
While mine was so earthy and chained to the 
real. 

With the heavens all brazen above me : — 
All nature to hers echoed hymnings divine, 
While doubts of a future, stirred ever in mine — 

No marvel she never could love me. 

But somehow, with Destiny's mystical skein, 
My love has entangled my infidel brain 

And bound it with hope, to a heaven; 
I dream of a sphere, we may find beyond this 
Where — blessed fruition! life's coveted bliss 

To the purified soul will be given. 



22 HAZEL BLOOM 



OTO be near to you! — Oh, to be dear to 
, you ! — 
To feel in my heart, that your heart is my 

own. 
All days have been dreary — my soul is 

aweary, 
And still, must I walk in this dark way 
alone? 

0, fond was my dreaming, when hope's star was 

beaming. 
When fancy's bright web like a mantle of gold, 
Lay over life's losses — its trials and crosses, 
And hid them, in splendors, of fold upon fold. 

I thought then to follow (Oh, heartless and 

hollow !) 
Where Fashion's throng led, and to kneel 

where it knelt — 
Thought Love's nectared chalice was found in 

a palace — 
Li princely halls only, true happiness dwelt. 



HAZEL BLOOM 23 

But Fashion's vile brew, is of wormwood and 

rue — 
It prays where the virtues are trampled and 

dead — 
The bane we thought gladness, has led to this 

madness ; 
Dissipation came in, and the Peace-angel fled. 

No wandering emotion e'er sullied devotion, 

But anger's hot lava my reason o'erran; 

In the coolness of pride, (that love's fervor 

belied) 
The sorrows and pangs of estrangement 

began. 

Be rashness forgiven, bring back to us heaven — 
Our Eden-like home, with its love-lighted 

skies; 
Tho' parted forever, affection dies never — 
'Tis knit into life with indissoluble ties. 

The rills that have mingled, can never be sin- 
gled— 

They'll flow on as one in their course to 
the sea ; 

By love, early plighted, our souls were united, 

And ever — forever united must be. 



24 HAZEL BLOOM 

Entwining each thought — with tenderness 

fraught — 
Is loving, enduring remembrance of thee, 
And, deep in your heart, in its holiest part, 
I know there's a hidden affection for me. 

Shall life be all nighted — Love's flame ne'er 

be lighted. 
While I — by its altar with ashes o'er strewn — 
Must ever remember thro' constant December, 
The balmy bright days and the roses of June? 

0, desert, Sahara! — Oh, waters of Marah! 

I tread the hot sands — press the fount with my 

lips — 
In sorrow, go roaming, thro' the shadowy 

gloaming 
That falls, o'er a life, with love's sun in eclipse. 



fiAZEL BLOOM 2o 



HIS new one is thought both convenient 

and nice — 

The atmosphere forcing the ink to the brim ; 
I question the worth of this modern device, 
For seldom great thoughts on the surface 
will swim, 
But something like whales, when they find 
themselves sought, 
Down, swiftly from sight, in the depths they 
will sink — 
At the bottom, the angled for ideas are caught, 
And only by multiplied thrusts in the ink. 

1855. 



26 HAZEL BLOOM 



^x^i0x^ of ®n^ gtfe* 

TTS MOENING dawned thro' penury's nar- 
^ row pane — 

A noon of wealth, with glory's laurel crown — 
Human weakness — one mistake — a felon's 

stain — 
The evening gloomed with all his fellow's 

frown. 



HAZEL BLOOM 27 



V^MILLION and gold 

In beauty unfold 
On the light, floating clouds of the West; 

The low, crooning sound 

Of all Nature around 
Is lulling the world into rest. 

Like a rover of Sin 

The zephyr steals in 
'Mong roses and carnations rare — 

In ecstatic bliss 

Gives each one a kiss, 
Then scatters their sweets on the air. 

In the shadowy hush 

The linnet and thrush 
Have gone to their nests in the grove ; 

The blue pimpernell 

To the lilly's wee bell 
Is whispering his story of love. 



28 HAZEL BLOOM 

Blest hour of delight 
That verges the night, 

What beauties and glories are thine, 
When the great car of day 
With its din rolls away. 

And silence seems Presence divine. 

Now the sparkle of dew 
And the rich violet hue 

Of the fast purpling clouds of the West, 
Hint of time's rapid flight 
And of life's coming night 

That shall lull into heavenly rest. 



HAZEL BLOOM 29 



71 BRILLIANT thought leaps out and 
'^^V® glows, 
Or scatters fragrance like the rose, 
Nor needs an artizan's design 
To plan and shape to make it shine, — 
Not all is brilliance in rondeaux. 

The labored effort plainly shows 

The mind has passed thro' mighty throes 

To give the world, with stamp divine, 

A brilliant thought. 

The music wins which sweetly flows. 
Not that which falls like stunning blows, 
And ease and grace, with sense combine. 
To clothe with elegance the line, 
Where Genius gives, in verse or prose, 

A brilliant thought. 



30 HAZEL BLOOM 



OFT a deep, nnspoken angnisli 
In the secret soul is stirred, 
And the wounded heart, though yearning 

For a kindly, loving word, 
Opens not its sacred portal, 

For the arts of friendly healing — 
Only God is told the sorrow, 

Through a mute-lipped, sad appealing. 

''I am with you" — seems responded. 

From the hush of Nature's bowers. 
And the spirit feels God nearer 

Where He's strewn the earth with flowers; 
Nature's language, rich with blessing, 

For its unobtrusive words. 
Speaks through softly murm'ring streamlets. 

And the low, sweet trill of birds. 

E'en a tiny, bruised allyssum. 

Or a trampled mignonette. 
Teach the heart, by sweet example, 

That 'tis better to forget. 



HAZEL BLOOM 31 

Like the touch of seraph pinions, 

Or a faintly whispered hope, 
Is the charm of perfume floating 

From a hidden heliotrope. 

Ah ! there 's soothing for the spirit 

Where the humid coolness lingers, 
Where the breezes touch us gently 

With their dainty, fairy fingers, — 
Where the woodland nymphs are gliding, 

Noiseless, o'er the mosses bright. 
Spreading Sylva's vestal altar 

With a cloth of violets white. 

All these tiny, fragrant flowers 

Speak to us in tender tone. 
Gently winning us from sorrow 

With a language all their own ; 
Little beauties, sent in blessing, — 

In our pathway angels strew them, 
That we hear, when joy is shrouded. 

Loving voices whisper through them. 



32 HAZEL BLOOM 



" — if only it never had been 
All the world had been brighter and then — " 

\\/lLL a hope never throb, but it comes 
back a sob, 

Prom the echoing halls of the soul? 
Do the joy -bells stirred, by a low thrilling word, 

Eorever resound with a funeral toll? 

Will the roses we grasp, like the bite of an asp, 
Giye back to our sense but the stinging of 
pain? 
Can there float a perfume, from the lillies' 
white bloom. 
That blends with enchantment Tof ana's 
slow bane? 

Where but flowers were sown, has a thistle 
seed blown. 
To root in their soil, a vile bramble to grow? 
Doth each lovliest vine, 'round a hyssop en- 
twine? 
And out from sweet fountains must bitter- 
ness flow? 



HAZEL BLOOM 33 

Does there lurk in each joy, a vile fiend to 
destroy 
All the pleasure and blessing it brought, 
With the stings of regret, as with thorns 
thickly set, 
That will pierce, as it turns, every retro- 
spect thought? 

Ay, there's never a spot, where this demon is 
not; 
Like a serpent he creeps in this Eden of 
ours, 
Where its pleasures are purest, its treasures 
securest. 
And blights with his poison its loveliest 
flowers. 

But we'll act for the right, as God gives us 
the light. 
Nor complain that the end from our vision 
is veiled ; 
'Twas in blessing and love, that the Father 
above. 
Secured us from loss that prevision entailed. 

In mercy, dear Father, still veil from our sight, 
The dawn of a joy, or a grief's brooding night, 



34 HAZEL BLOOM 

That we faint not, expecting the gathering 

gloom, 
Nor cease in the strife that ennobles the life, — 
That we cloud not our joys with a shadowy 
tomb, 
Nor a heart ever miss the delectalSle bliss. 
Of a sweet, unexpected delight. 



HAZEL BLOOM 35 



"VX/hEN paths that in summer were fringed 

with lush grass, 
Are raspy with frost-whitened blades as you 

pass, 
When the arbor's denuded of clusters and 

leaves, 
And the Ivy's bare vines are entwining the 

eaves. 
When the bright tinted sumach has changed 

to a brown 
And the wind-shaken forest drops summer 

wealth down — 
The autumn's richrobings of crimson and gold 
In the path of the years, to be trampled as 

mould — 
When the beauty of purple-hued asters is shed. 
And the glory of goldenrod faded and dead, 
When the song-birds, we loved for their jubilant 

tune. 
Have gone where they find a perennial June, 
When clouds that were downy on the summer's 

bright blue, 



36 HAZEL BLOOM 

Have draped all the skies in a somberly hue, 
When the orchard has yielded its riches of fruit, 
And its life-feeding myst'ry is hid in the root — 
The Aftermath gathered — the last sheaves of 

grain — 
When Nature seems all in a funeral train. 
Then Hazel buds burst thro' their scales into 

bloom, 
And glow like the stars that rob midnight of 

gloom. 

When brooklets, unfettered, went leaping in 

glee, 
O'er rocks and thro' woodlands, adown to the 

sea — 
When the bloom-time of Spring, in its glory, 

was here, 
And earth all resounding with music and 

cheer, 
When asphodels loaded with fragrance the air 
And vied with the roses in loveliness rare, 
Witch-Hazel, from Nature, seemed standing 

apart. 
The wee, golden buds were asleep in its heart. 
And sunshine and shower besought it, in vain. 
To star, with its bloom. Flora's garlanded 

fane. 



HAZEL BLOOM 37 

Oh, marvel of beauty— bright blossoms of gold ! 
They show ns the life leafless branches enfold. 
'Tis the flower of hope with this lesson of cheer — 
'Tis the season of rest, not "The death of the 

year," 
When, Nature, reposing in the bosom of God, 
Feels the throb of His heart 'neath her snow- 
mantled sod — 
At the soul of All-life with new life is imbued— 
At the Fountain of Beauty, enriched and re- 
newed. 

Aye, symbol of Hope and the star gleam of 
Faith, 

That give to Life's autumn a glow — 
A spirit revealed, while the seeming of Death 

Lies palled in the brown leaves below. 

A mission it has that was given of Him 

Who gave it its blossoming time ; 
Thus blooming alone — desolation around. 

Defying the glittering rime. 
It speaks to the soul — 'tis an oracle sweet. 

His token. His promise and bond 
That, tho' passing thro' change that leads 
down thro' the tomb. 

There's a beautiful Springtime beyond. 



38 HAZEL BLOOM 



^J^ Shuttle went flying 

With sympathy sighing, 
While it shot all the gold weft with threadings 
of woe. 

There was murmured complaining, 

The Shuttle arraigning — • 
That grief, with the joy, was unwound in the 
throw. 

A whispered regretting : — 

'*No blessing forgetting, 
God knoweth thy needs — it is His to bestow : — 

From Love I'm receiving 

The woof I am weaving." 
The Shuttle's reproof was subduing and low. 

And, blent with Time's beating, 

I heard it repeating 
The lesson it taught in love's tenderest flow. 

Aye, softly it chanted this simple refrain — 
" 'Tis wisdom that mingles the sorrow and pain. 
The sunlight, that gilds, with its glory the 
earth. 



HAZEL BLOOM 39 

"Would blight with its blaze, but for clouds and 
the rain, 
And lives would be arid and smitten with 

dearth 
If beamed on forever with joy and mirth — 
In blessing I tveave in the sorrow and paiii. ' ' 



40 HAZEL BLOOM 



^^^ HEN meadows are strewn with the but- 
tercup's gold, 
There's gladness for childhood that song never 

told; 
The laugh of a child, bubbling up from the 

heart, 
la linked with the spring, a most beautiful part. 

A bevy of children — sweet far away dream ! — 
They trip o'er the sward, lit with dandelion 

gleam — 
We'll join in their sports with a heartiness true ; 
Our own vanished springtime, with them, we'll 

renew. 

The woods, (that are reached by a romp thro' 

the lane 
Where the grass is made velvet by sunshine 

and rain) 
Have infinite beauty, in blossom outspread — 
Delights for the gods in the fragrance they shed. 



HAZEL BLOOMS 41 

Come, drink in the perfume of blossoming 

trees — 
Take lessons of patience from murmuring bees, 
And listen to brooklets — they'll sing you a song 
As, wild in their glee, they go leaping along. 

Come, watch the wild birds as they cheerily 

dart — 
Their music, with sunshine, take into your 

heart — 
Let the gladness of childhood thrill you, and 

be gay, 
Thus keeping your soul in perpetual May. 

When Nature is robing her forests anew, 
And heaven spreads over her loveliest blue — 
When earth is aglow with spring's ravishing 

bloom, 
Ingratitude only sits shrouded in gloom. 



42 HAZEL BLOOM 



g0v ^n^0tnnin* 

\\^HEN Somnus is giddy and flies from my 
pillow, 
And care's elfin throngs come to vex me — 
When mem'ry, perverse, all the sweet things 
forgetting, 
Will mention but those that perplex me, 
I ask that monotony's rigid insistence 
Shall drive out the gibber ous crew ; 
They flee from his presence — will hie back to 
elfland, 
Where their Mght shade and astrof ell grew — 

Ask thought for a theme that's subduing in 
power — 
The sea, with its billows all hushed to a calm — 
Not mantled with darkness, but lit with the 
sunset, 
When Day, unto Evening, is chanting her 
psalm. 
All life's petty griefs in the grandeur evanish, 
The spirit is freed from its thrall, 



HAZEL BLOOM 43 



And unto the faint heart a trustfulnesss whis- 
pers, 
''Be brave — there's a God over all." 



In fancy I launch on the shimmering sea 
That's lighting with glory its waters for me ; 
Like a sprite of the ocean the boat seems to 

glide, 
As lightly the oars dip the opaline tide. 
Till out in expanses, afar from the shore, 
Away from life's din and tumultuous roar 
Where, gently I'm rocked on the breast of the 

deep. 
While symphonic waves woo the Lethe of 

Sleep. 
A broad, shining pathway is westward un- 
rolled — 
I watch the bright wavelets, with tresses of 

gold, 
Kun out in wild play to the visual rim 
Where the sky bends to kiss them in distance 

so dim, 
Till thought is enchanted — anxiety flees, 
And weariness slips into somnolent ease ; 
The silences seem to have rhythmical beat — 
'Tis footfalls of wakefulness, now in retreat. 



44 HAZEL BLOOM 

Forgetfulness softly creeps into the mind, 

Suspecting no trace of resistance to find, 

But wakefulness turns back, commands and 

forbids — 
Yet, Slumber steals past her and touches the 

lids ; 
Then Morpheus bears me away in his arms 
To his realm that's swept of all fears and 

alarms 
Where, lulled with his stupors, of poppy and 

rose, 
I dreamily, dreamily sink to repose. 



HAZEL BLOOM 45 



^Vv^HEJS" evening falls softly, with far away 

dreaming, 
Oft steals o'er my spirit a rapturous seeming — 
I feel the light touch of her hand as of old, 
When bending above me with good night 

caresses. 
She lovingly pushed back the long heavy 
tresses, 
And smoothed out the tangles of gold. 

Touch memory's harp in the silence of even, 
And loved ones will leave e'en the raptures of 
heaven. 
And come to us then when the gates are ajar : 
With mother's face, ever most central and ten- 
der. 
They light all the Past with a rosy-hued splendor 
And the soul's secret chamber's unbar. 

From hidden recesses they bring out its treas- 
ures — 

Among them are shining youth's dream- 
lighted pleasures, 



46 HAZEL BLOOM 

When mother-love blent with, and hallowed 
them all; 
The haunts that fche years with their sunsets 

have gilded, 
The castles of beauty that child-fancy builded. 
All come in the gloaming at memory's call. 

'Twas down by the river, where bluebells were 
sweetest 

And swift-footed hours forever ran fleetest, 
Enthralled by the charm, that I loved most 
to roam — 

To watch where the sunshine and ripple wove 
wimples. 

Like smiles, on a rosy face, dancing with dim- 
ples. 
Forgetful of duty till mother called home. 

Kighfc-angled with the river-bank's water-worn 
ledges 

The forest and farm knit their raveled-out 
edges. 
In a brambled rail-fence. From the pas- 
ture's green field. 

Thro' the edge of the woodland, a path, 
fringed with mosses 

And bushy green tangles with clematis flosses. 
Half the charms of the deep wood revealed. 



HAZEL BLOOM 47 

When sunset was tinting each shadowy hollow 

'Twas gladness, the kine, from the pasture, to 
follow 
And dream, as I wandered, of fairy and 
gnome — 

To loiter 'mong ferns, with great trees spread- 
ing over. 

And breathe the perfume of wild roses and 
clover 
Enrapt, until mother called home. 

I'm i ngering now on the banks of the Eiver — 
The sunset of Time on its ripples a quiver — 

How peaceful the flowing — no turmoil or 
foam — 
A luminous mist o'er the landscape is falling — 
The evening has come, I hear a voice calling, — 

'Tis mother's voice calling me home. 



48 HAZEL BLOOM 



ONE long (lay of toil was ending, 
And my head was hot with pain 
When a thought, akin to enyy, 

Eacing thro' my throbbing brain, 
Muttered to my fevered fancy 

"Only wealth has power to please — 
Eocking in the lap of riches 
Life were fair as summer seas." 

Wealth for me would bridge the ocean, 

Open Europe's storied lore, 
Eome and Greece, with art and beauty, 

Each would open wide her door; 
These my hungering soul had longed for- 

0ft they seemed within my clasp. 
But like gold beneath the rainbow 
^ They escaped my eager grasp. 

How I spurned the homely hangings 
That in poverty were wrought, 

E'en the couch, whose dingy plushings 
Now in weariness I sought. 



HAZEL BLOOM 49 

"Common things," I said, repining, 
*'Ne'er for me can blessing hold"; 

But the Sun, just then declining, 
Flooded all with molten gold. 

And a benison, descending 

On the wings of closing day. 
Soothed and hushed my wild complaining — 

Drove the evil sprite away — 
Brought before me my possessions, 

Eichest in the long array. 
Wealth of home, where all my dear ones 

Make it bright with love, alway. 

Lightly drooped the shining fringes 

Of the evening's twilight hour, 
While the playful, roving zephyr 

Gently kissed each folding flower; 
Softly gliding into dreamland 

On the sunset's gilded car. 
Soon for me, his golden splendor 

Wrapped all objects, near and far. 

In his grand effulgent shimmer 

"Common things," grew strangely bright; 
And my home became a palace 

All resplendent in the light ; 



go HAZEL BLOOM 

E'en the russet garb of labor, 

If unstained by deed of shame, 
There outshone imperial purple. 

With its throne and titled name. 

Sweeter than the grand exotics. 

Were my lillies, pure and white — 
All was beauty — all about me 

Whispered to me — "Life is bright," 
And its sweetest flowers are blooming 

In the toil-worn paths of earth, 
And its purest gems will sparkle 

On the brow of honest worth. 

Diamonds, oft, are but the tear-drops 

Avarice wrings from orphaned trust. 
And his gorgeous, gilded trappings 

Steal their hues from hearts he's crushed. 
More I saw in raptured dreaming — 

Seraphs holding crowns of gold. 
Beckoning up the shining pathway 

Where the gates of Eest unfold. 

Some whose wealth did bow them earthward 

Sought for this to enter in. 
Others, wearing robes of priesthood. 

Thought that these absolved from sin j 



HAZEL BLOOM 51 

But no easier passed the portal, 
Those in purple, cowl, or gown ; — 

He who bore life's burden's bravely. 
Won the race and wore the crown. 

Then a touch of dimpled fingers 

Woke my heart with mother- joy — 
Golden head upon my bosom — 

Tired, sleepy, baby boy 
Poured a wealth of love and kisses 

On the lips that had complained. 
He (sweet angel ! — God had sent him) 

Quick the demon, Envy, chained. 



52 HAZEL BLOOM 



IVOT all we name as friends, the soul re- 
®-^ ceives as such, 

Nor ever those whose lip-born love weaves 
smoothest claim; 
Those only who, to ours, give genial spirit 
touch 
Can light that hidd en shrine with friendship's 
holy flame. 
'Tis by this sign the friends God made for us 
are known ; 
Dear ones! We count their names as precious 
gems which lie 
Within the hearts most sacred place— its very 
own — 
A circlet bright that's bound by sympathy's 
silken tie. 

There's still another bond for which no word 
is found — 
A gift of His, so high the minds extremest 
reach 



HAZEL BLOOM 53 

Doth fail to find it name, or ontologic bound, 
Tho' undefined— beyond the subtlest grasp 
of speech. 
This wondrous, unseen realm, to spirit sense, 
remains, 
And o'er its. lines the soul, to kindred soul, 
conveys 
Joy's glad, exultant flash, or sorrow's woeful 
pains, 
Which, thro' this gift divine, love's tender- 
ness allays. 

He Hs * * * * * 

'Tis sweet in twilight's hush, when noisy day 
has fled 
And evening's azure glows with beauty's 
single star — 
When roses, gemmed with dew, their richest 
fragrance shed. 
To feel the silence thrill with signals from afar 
Feel the thought-lines warmly pulsing with a 
message from our own — 
To know the call of dear ones, as we know 
the breath of fiowers, 
And catch love's fond impulsion, thro' this 
mystic Psychephone, 
Trembling on the stillness of the dreamy, 
evening hours. 



54 HAZEL BLOOM 

Thro' distance, o'er these subtile, sentient 
threads of mind. 
We feel, by finest sense, our answering 
heart-beats throb 
Till every fluttering, white-winged joy doth find 
Eesponse, and every grief a sympathetic sob. 
0, blessed bond! It links us to the Life 
Divine ! 
Thro' this our prayers may reach the holy 
Fount of Love — 
The league of kinship which these spirit cords 
entwine, 
By fervent sway of soul, is felt in realms 
above. 



HAZEL BLOOM 55 



"]1 yrlNE open enemy hath no power to 
■^ V^ wound — 

His poison shafts fall hurtless to the ground ; 
He may wreak a treach'rous lynx-like deed 
And yet will never cause my heart to bleed. 
If he should glare on me in hottest hate, 
With tiger fierceness, plan the direst fate. 
With claws distended, lusting for the roon, 
I'd smile and do him kindness over soon. 
Or, give a sure nepenthe for his wrath 
By silent, strewing favors in his path. 

But when those to whom my heart is bound in 

trust, 
With aim concealed, make unexpected 

thrust, — 
When those I'd counted friends, as friends had 

served, 
Whose joy and weal my strongest effort 

nerved — 
If THEY shall stab and gaze with hungry eyes 
To catch my wince of pain, 'neath friendship's 

guise, 



56 HAZEL BLOOM 

Then, a wound is made, that all the quivering 

senses feel — 
A wound, that only trusted friends could deal ; 
And, saddest hurt of all, the heart will find. 
The same stab struck its faith in human kind. 



HAZEL BLOOM 57 



^^HE freighted a tliistle-down once with a 
<^'"^^ wish, 

And gave to the breeze with her breath ; 
The Fates were to hold its invisible leash 

And, if to be granted ere death, 
Bring back, at her will, to her out-reaching 
hand 
This wealth-laden embassy sent. 
Unheeding her will and its pleading command, 

Up, up toward the zenith it went, 
Till will, it would seem, at the last had con- 
trolled. 
When, earthward it came, like a fairy rigged 
sail — 
Came straight toward the hand that was eager 
to hold 
The zephyr-tossed feather, whose course 
should unveil 
What Destiny held, in the Future concealed — 

Life's weightiest questions decide. 
Almost within grasp and it wavered and reeled. 
Then, mounting again the etherial tide, 



68 HAZ^L BtOb]^ 

It floated — was lost in the depths of the blue. 
That thistle down, swayed by a pulse of the 
air, 
Had wrecked her heart's hopes on the rocks of 
despair, 
As billows of ocean rich argosies strew. 

Now listless and faithless she sits on the shore 
Where Time's restless surge casts its wrack 
at her feet ; 
She sees not the sunshine — hears only the roar 
Of dark, sullen waves as they ceaselessly beat. 
In Fate-ridden weakness she shrinks from all 
strife — 
Lets Destiny's elves to her fancy repeat 
The early "decrees" that have shadowed her 
life— 
No effort essays that might wreak a defeat — 
Just waits for the stroke of pale Atropos' knife. 



A faith in the hidden controllings of Fate, 
Enchains, with its might, even Eeason and 
Will: 

In wreakless inaction her devotees wait 
For the slow-turning grind of her mill — 



HAZEL BLOOM 59 

Let circiimslance bind them with torturing 
gyves, 
Pass doors that would open to Industry's 
keys 
And when, with his braided pangs, Poverty 
drives. 
Receive all his lashings as "Fortune's de- 
crees." 

E'en tho' Opportunity's latch-string is out, 

They, shelterless, wait for events to compel. 
And deem themselves goaded by Destiny's 
knout 
While held in the toils of her mystical spell. 
Credulity, Sloth and their following throngs 
Forever are weaving entangling snares — 
'Tis not till a victim is bound with their 
thongs. 
To thwart his endeavor that Destiny dares. 

Bring Will to the front — strike Destiny down, 
And throttle the Fate that would hinder 
success — 
You'll find that dame Fortune will put off her 
frown 
And yield, for past sufferings, an ample 
redress. 



60 HAZEL BLOOM 



JUST beyond the reach of thought, 
Just beyond the grasp of mind 
Is a sense of Presence — fraught 
With blessing — felt, yet undefined. 

At times it seems a wondrous power — 
A strength, awaiting Faith'' s command — 

For trusting soul, a proffered dower. 
That's held by Love's omniscient hand. 

Is it the gift, reserved of God 

I'or those whom Faith brings nearest Him?- 
The power that smote the rock? — the rod 

That rives the fountain's brim. 
That all His thirsty souls may drink? 

"0, ye of little faith," He cries — 
So many faithless Peters sink, 

And the proffered power dies. 



HAZEL BLOOM 61 



\J^^HEN thou, Death, art come to be the 

old man's guest 
Who, bowed beneath the heavy weight of toil 
and years. 
So longeth for thy rest, 
Or to the weary mother, looking through her 
tears. 
To the bright celestial shore 
Where her loved have gone before. 
Then, truly, thou art blest. 

To them the ties that bound are broken, all, 1 
And they will stretch glad hands of welcome 
unto thee 
Who comes to break their thrall — 
To slip the leash of weary life and set them 
free; 
They, impatient, wait release 
To pass the golden gates of Peace 
And gladly list thy call. 



62 HAZEL BLOOM 

But, in Love's young home, where Life is one 

bright, pulsing sea 
Of joy and hope, thy summons hath heart- 
breaking sound. 
Like cruel Fate's decree; 
As tho' alone, by stealth, she had thy gyves 
unbound. 
When thou hadst to this Eden crept 
And wrought, while guardian angels slept, 
What Envy's dream might be. 

We feel the surging depth of Sorrow's stifled 

cry, 
Yet in thy presence, helpless, dumb with grief, 
we stand 
And silent question — Why? — 
Why budding life is frozen by thine icy hand. 
Why yielded to thy devastating claim 
Are all the loveliest of earth, — 
. E'en God's sweetest, dearest gift of birth — 
A mother-love. 
Which is for life's most holy joys, the precious 
name. 

While cloud-depths veil in gloom the steely 
form of truth. 
The heart, athrob with grief, still ques- 
tions why : — 



HAZEL BLOOM 63 

Ah, why Love's brightly burning flame 
Is ever smothered by thy breath, — 
Its altar, dark and cold, whereon dead ashes 
lie; — 
Oh! why are love, and hope, and youth, 
All left within thy grasp, 0, Death? 



64 HAZEL BLOOM 



®"^5!5^IETH of darkness! bloom of night! 
-^^Bringing me such rare delight; 
Floating charm, thy rich perfume 
Stirs the lagging, weary brain, 

Hushes all the thoughts of gloom, 
Soothes or dulls the pangs of pain. 

This floral wonder, glistening white, 
Scorning Day's broad, glaring light. 

In the sacred stillness now 
Beams in beauty on my sight, 

As the star on evening's brow 
Beams upon a moonless night. 

Like a rainbow on the skies. 
Looked for, yet a glad surprise — 

Like a meteor's flash and gleam 
Crossing midnight's sullen gloom, 

Like the fairy forms of dream 
Is this wondrous, starry bloom. 

Tell me lovely, mystic flower. 
Why you gem this gruesome hour? 



HAZEL BLOOM 65 

Were the jasper gates ajar? 
Did the Night, from angel's crown, 

Pluck for us its brightest star. 
And cast the gleaming jewel down? 

0, thou, pearly, radiant flower! 

Why give Night such wealth of dower? 

Why with anthers, dipped in gold, 
'Bound a carpel, rosy red. 

Wait in darkness to unfold, 
And thy queenly beauty spread? 

Now a sentient presence seeming — 
Ah! it whispers, or I'm dreaming: 

"An evangel I'm to thee. 
With this message from the Past ; 

How e'er full life's joys may be, 
Like my bloom they may not last. 

Throngs are gone — the voices stilled 
That once these halls with gladness filled; 
Here, with thee, I stand alone 
Where, before Night's ebon throne, 

Silence holy, waits to bear 
From thy heart its inmost cry. 

Wrought into such fervent prayer 
As doth bring God's presence nigh," 



66 HAZEL BLOOM 



v^HE wanders on, at her sweet will, 
<s,^^^*^^ Thro' gloopiy vales or paths of pleasure, 
^or asks the world if grave, or gay, 
Shall be her theme and measure. 

She scorns the stilty, stiff Rondeau 

That artizans must fashion, 
Eut loves the brooklets romping flow 

And Nature's gush of passion. 

Tho' common use has smoothly worn 

The Sonnet's polished fetter, 
She wonders how its chains are borne 

When freedom's range is better. 

The triolet she never tries — 

She'd lose in such endeavor 
The glory of the sunset skies. 

The music of the river. 

My muse is not a Hellenese 

With bright, Olympian halo, 
But that strong, helpful one, that feels 

The heart-throbs of her fellow. 



HAZEL BLOOM 67 

She lifts me from the slough, Despond — 

Bids Nature hush my sighing 
By crooning for me sweetest song, 

While in her bosom lying. 

The violets, the Spring first kissed, 

To us, are sweet as heather — 
We climb the hills, thro shining mist. 

In Autumn's golden weather. 

When, Lotus-drugged, Ambition sleeps. 
She whispers — "Come up higher" — 

Thro' starry fields of azure deeps 
I'm led and feasted by her. 

She breaks the locks which golden keys 

Could only open to me. 
And kindly joins her gift, with Art*s, 

Earth's grandest views to show me. 

While those who sing for fame and crown 

Must hide the Poet's tether. 
Dear Muse and I will wander down 

Thro' Freedom's vale, together. 

'Tis sweet to us, the path we tread — 

All Nature's song is ours, 
Her wildest scenes, the stars o'erhead 

And all her fragrant flowers. 



68 HAZEL BLOOM 



AH, me ! we never know 
^^What cold, wild winds may blow 
Across the springtime's balmy promise, sweet — 
By what untimely frost 
The fruit germs may be lost. 
And rosy petals beaten down with sleet. 

The eyes that glow to-night 

With childhood's loving light, 
To-morrow may, with pallid lids be veiled — 

The bounding pulse be stilled. 

Life's crimson current chilled, 
And rich, red lips with Death's cold kisses 
paled. 

We never know the fate 

So near, until too late; 
Tho' oft the black-winged demon's shadow falls 

In heavy gloom upon the heart — 

A thousand dreads upstart, 
Yet on ward,. all, until the shock appalls. 



HAZEL BLOOM 69 

Warm love anticipates, 

With open arms awaits, 
'Till hissing wires the stunning message brings. 

Oh, God! the wild despair 

That hushes e'en the voice of prayer. 
And makes the soul forget all offerings. 

Such sudden, crushing grief! 

Hope, rising, scouts belief, 
But falls down, prone, before the sorrow-flash- 
ing wires. 

Hear Sympathy's whispered tone, 

Oh, ye, who sit alone. 
With but the light of memory's altar fires. 



To HAZEL :bloom 



3t ^nn^ in &}xil&ltX00&. 

T STOOD in the flush of an evening in June 
-^When leafage and blossom and fragrance 
triune, 
Crown this, of the months, the most queenly 

and fair; 
The clover and roses had poured on the air 
A nectar I drank with enjoyment rare; 
Baptized in this flood of ecstatic delight 
My child eyes were blessed with miraculous 
sight. 

0, gladly I'd yield up the wisdom of years. 
If gazing out now, thro' the mist of my tears, 
I could think as I tho't in that beautiful 

dream. 
That the gates were ajar, and the shimmer 

and gleam 
Of golden-paved streets on that silvery 
stream, 
**The River of Life" — shining thro' in the west. 
Grave us a bright glimpse of the home of the 
blest. 



liAZEL BLOOM 'M 

I saw, as I gazed with my dream-lighted eyes, 
A broad, gilded stairway let down from the 
skies. 
And angels came out with their robin gs of 

white, 
All 'broidered and shining with flosses of 

light. 
And bound on each brow with a coronet 
bright. 
Was a veil of soft gossamer, fold upon fold. 
With amethyst border, and flutings of gold. 

And spread on the sky, to my glorified view, 
Was a foam crested ocean, pavillioned with 

blue; 
Bright islands of azure thro' cloud-rifts were 
seen. 
Then sunk, like Atlantis, in billowy sheen : 
While ships, that I fancied from shores ever- 
green. 
Afloat on its bosom, at anchor would ride. 
Or cut with their prows thro' the rose-tinted 
tide. 

Some angels sailed far, where the cloud-waves 

grew dark. 
In boats that were graceful as gondolier's 

barque. 



72 HAZEL BLOOM 

And those I tho't sailing far over the seas 
To watch over missions and little Burmese; 
Then others swept down, where the glory- 
crowned trees 
Hid them on the stairs, but I knew from that 

band 
Some went to each household, all over the land, 

Where children would whisper "I lay nle to 

sleep, 
Send angels dear Father, my spirit to keep 
Thro' midnight and darkness, to guard me 

from harm. 
To give me sweet dreams, and to shield from 

alarm — 
To watch me till morning dawns, rosy and 
warm, 
Or, dying before, let them bear me above 
To the bosom of Jesus, on pinions of love." 



These memories float in on the fragrance to 

night, 
While sunset is veiling in glory the light, 
And seasons, repeating in cyclical rune, 
Bring forward in beauty, rose-garlanded 
June; 



HAZEL BLOOM 73 

All earth seems an altar with flowers o'er- 

strewn — 
'Tis l^ature's thank offering — my heart is in 

tune 
With her grand De Profundis, now rolling in 

praise ; 
Send angels, dear Father, a grown-up child 

prays. 
And a rose-wreathed June for my sunset of 

days. 



74 HAZEL BLOOM 



O, GOLDENROD, bright goldenrod! 
It fringes all the wayside hedges, 
And makes the forest mantle rich 

With lovely tasseled edges. 
It lights with sunshine of its own 

Each dark, neglected dingle. 
And links itself with memories of 
The cheery, old-time ingle. 

Despite the summer's burning drought, 

It blooms profuse and bright as ever. 
And where spring fountains rippled forth 

With laughter to the river. 
It kisses now their parching lips 

To woo their music mellow. 
And wreaths our dying flowers with 

An aureole of yellow. 

It gaily lifts its nodding plumes 

Above decay's inceptive traces, 
And hides beneath its cloth-of-gold 

The season's fading graces. 
Bright goldenrod ! 'tis autumn's crown 

And summer's sunset glory — 
Each blooming-time is new with joy 

As Love's old charming story. 



HAZEL BLOOM 75 



gin eBtr^nin0 in ^mt^. 

f Y^^C^RY won 'gainst beauty's brush in 

painting sunset skies, 
But paling now, upon the hills in rosy lan- 
guor lies : 
All breathing life, with her, seems panting for 

a cooling breeze. 
For winds have stopped 'mid ocean isles, to 

toss the gleaming spray 
And spicy odors rich, along the golden path of 

day; 
And motionless, awaiting Beauty's Star, stand 

all the trees, 
While Erse, from her stores, besprinkles earth 

with gems, 
From mantling robes of green, to flower-broid- 

ered hems. 

But mortals, restless aye, will burden all life's 

golden hours 
With low complainings, forgetting bounty's 

blessing showers, 



76 HAZEL BLOOM 

Impatient, beg the one withheld for other days 

and needs, 
Nor see the plan inwoven, that the world's wide 

hunger feeds ; 
Nor ken the flashes on the sultry air, above the 

plain, 
Are the wings of ripening angels, sweeping o'er 

the grain. 



HAZEL BLOOM 77 



^'^^^ITH humbled heart, subdued and awed 

I look on thee, 
Thou time-defying granite pile; with senses 

rapt 
Behold thee, grand and world-renowned — 

YOSEMITE — 

Thy spray-enwreathing stream — 
Thy rock-walled vale and sunset clouds, all 
glory capped 
With evanescent gleam. 

Aye, gaze and wondering gaze, until the cen- 
turies swing 

Their massive doors ajar, and glimpses give 
when Earth was young; 

But farthest grasp of human thought but weak- 
ling reasons bring 
To solve thy problem vast ; 

In vain the Present asks the voiceless silences 
that hung 
Their mysteries o'er the Past — 



78 HAZEL BLOOM 

The far, dim Past, that wrapped our sphere in 

shoreless sea — 
The mantling gloom, that swathed its infancy 

in mist, 
While yet our central orb did wait Omnipotent 

decree 
To bless the world with Light — 
Ere Day's first, smiling morn with rosy beams 

had kissed 
Away the brooding night. 
What engine wrought in Nature's great com- 
pleting plan 
To ope for thee thy chasm's broad, abysmal 

deeps? 
Was it the glacier's ponderous plow, that 

smoothed for man 
The verdant, fertile plain, 
Or, rolling waters that thro' circling eons, wore 

thy steeps 
With solemn, sad refrain? — ■ 

Or from Earth's central fires, did fierce, volcan- 
ic throes 
Expel, in molten mass, the elemental rock. 
That o'er the wilds to mountain majesty arose, 

And while yet warm with throbbing strain. 
Did earthquake rend with pole-disturbing shock, 

Thy mighty walls amain? 



HAZEL BLOOM 79 

0, puny mind ! be still and catch the chant sub- 
lime, 

Of Nature's psalm, that here is poured in never 
ending praise ; 

Accept the truth that God, by His right hand, 
did raise 

These templed rocks, to stand thro' an eternity 
of time. 
An altar place of worship, where 

All nations come, and every heart an offering 
lays 
Of mingled praise and prayer. 



80 HAZEL BLOOM 



"But saddest is the tho't of joys 

That never yet were tasted."— John Hay, 

AND yet the heart will never turn, 
^^^ Tho' all its wealth beside were wasted- 
' Twill never cease to plead and yearn 

"For joys it covets, yet untasted: 
And at its secret altar kneeling. 

Whereon the life an offering lies, 
The sonl will lift its one appealing 
For joy that Wisdom still denies. 

It watches for the longed-for beaming 

With hidden, cherished, fond delight, 
As tho' the hoping, wishing, dreaming 

Could make the shadowed pathway bright; 
As tho' from out some shining mist. 
By radiant bow of promise kissed, 
That joy might come, to bless it yet 
And soothe the pain of long regret. 

Tho' at our feet fall blessing showers. 
All worthless in our grasp they seem. 

De-gloried, as are withered flowers. 
If still denied the soul's fond dream. 



HAZEL BLOOM 81 

For lack of it — that single joy, — 
The life is robbed of sweet employ; 
Each cup seems blent with Upas drips, 
Each day seems gloomed with cold eclipse. 

Sweet sleep will sometimes give the boon, — 

Possession's own supreme delight, — 
Oh, sad that Day dissolves so soon 

The bright, warm vision — gift of Xight ! 
Brief joy ! The rapturous dream diffused, 

Swims round the soul like golden mist. 
And life a moment seems suffused 

With dawn's own rose and amethyst. 

And shall it be, — this sorest need — 

To us, eternal, haunting loss? 
Or will this spirit-hunger lead 

Up, from this life-enduring cross. 
With sentience large, evolved by this, 

(When change the mortal veil shall rift,) 
To take our own supremest bliss 

From God's infinitudes of gift? 



82 HAZEL BLOOM 



By Request. 

nrHESE days are hot, and dry, and dreary ; 
The burning sun seems never weary 
The vine lies limp on the thirsty earth — 
The grass grows sere in the long, long 
dearth — 
The days are dusty, hot and dreary. 

The sky is cloudless, brassy, dreary. 
The wind seems ever languid, weary 

But hope still clings to the gifts of the 
Past— 

We trust that the rain will come at last 
And the days be damp and cheery. 

0, clouds sweep o'er, veil the sun's hot shin- 
ing! 
With copious rains, come, hush all repining, 
Swell the shrunken grains of the sun-burnt 

lands. 
With new, green grass clothe the arid sands, 

Then the days will be bright and cheery. 
August, 1895. 



HAZEL BLOOM 83 



T TpON Parnassian heights he walked and 
gazed below ; — 
From wing of Jove's high soaring bird he 
plucked his pen ; 
xittuned to poet soul, his lofty numbers flow — 
His stately verse ne'er stoops to common 
needs of men. 

The earth-born, toiling throng, he saw, but 
from afar; 
No interlinking brotherhood bound him to 
them ; 
For them no warmth his glory shed —a cold, 
bright star. 
On which they gazed as on a costly, daz- 
zling gem. 

To those who nearest reach his altitude of 
thought 
He bends himself to speak, but yet, with 
lofty mien; 



84 HAZEL BLOOM 

Of these, but few, familiar comradship, have 

sought; 
They stand, his far, dim height and earth's 

green vales, between. 
To take his gift, which often falls like vivid 

lightning flashes, 
And crystalize, and link for comprehension's 

reach — 
They trace his subtle thread, entangled with 

the shining meshes 
Of universal lore, and weave in wefts of 

wondrous speech. 

Sometimes, it seems, an idea vast, his measure 
strains. 
When he doth crush the whole, as quartz is 
crushed for gold, 
And then, reject and cleanse, until there's 
naught remains 
Of quartz or dross. The massive idea we 
behold 
Upon his page, aglow in shining, golden grains. 

Then alchemistic souls, in study's crucial 
heat. 
Must fuse and integrate — must clothe, and 
warm. 



HAZEL BLOOM 85 

And breathe into it soul, when lo, with life 
replete, 
The world will praise for breadth and depth, 
embracing form. 



In this bright world of ours God placed some 
humble ones 
With loving hearts, o'erwelling with sweet 
tenderness ; 
They soothe the wounds of war, they cheer 
earth's toiling sons 
And where grief broods these faithful ones 
are there to bless; 
And e'en when fiends come forth with pesti- 
lential breath 
To pour their reeking poisons on the stag- 
nant air, 
Forgetting self, they wrestle long with Death, 
And, with devotion's strength, the black- 
winged demon, dare. 

Tho' humble these, their elder Brother sits 
enthroned 
At God's right hand; His golden words, im- 
pressive, deep. 



86 HAZEL BLOOM 

Still speak to us in sweet monition, gentle 
toned, 
''''If ye love me feed my lamhs, — aye feed my 
sheep.'''' 

0, many sheep have need of thee. Go feed 
them "In His Name," 
Or seek that shelterless, that lone one that 
has strayed, 
Nor deem thy labor lost because, unknown to 
fame. 
For whoso lifts the cup, by which there's 
one soul's thirst allayed. 
The same shall eat of hidden manna. He is 
blest of God. 
Tho', bat faintly we can echo the loving 
Shepherd's call, 
We'll find in Duty's obscure ways, His sweet- 
est blessings fall — 
In these same, lowly paths, earth's sainted 
ones have trod. 

It may be grand to tread Olympian heights 
and breathe 
Ambrosial airs, — to win high praise 'mong 
those whose souls 



HAZEL BLOOM 87 

Are lit with Heaven's fire ; but sweeter far to 
wreathe 
A simple worded song, whose swelling music 
rolls 
A tidal wave of feeling, thrilling into life 
A long chained serfdom. Greater mastery 
of the art 
Is his, who lifts to light, from savagery and 
strife. 
Earth's darkened isles — whose pen can touch 
the world's great heart 
With philanthropic fire, — whose verse has, 
throbbing thro' the whole. 
In sympathy with man, a loving, human 
soul. 



88 HAZEL BLOOM 



®<rjic 



ICH blessings are scattered around ns — 
Why heedlessly trample them down 
And ask for the millionaire's coffers, 

Or sigh for a kingdom and crown? 
We've ever the sunshine of loving, 

Unmixed with the drosses of gold — 
Its pleasures are not in wealth's giving 

Or e'en in its power to withhold. 

The jewels, whose splendors we covet. 

Gain much of their sparkle and glow 
From the flutter and tumult of bosoms 

Where heart-aches are throbbing below; 
In palaces, often, is hidden 

A skeleton presence of dread, 
That quenches the flame on Love's altar 

While hope in the darkness lies dead. 

A queen may be rich in dominions, 
Have crown and a scepter and throne. 
Yet all of the riches of loving 

To her be forever unknown; 
Far greater the kingdom for woman 

Where love is the power — ;her throne 
In a heart of unswerving devotion, 

Its measureless realms her own. 



HAZEL BLOOM 89 

Thro' the tapestried halls of the mansion 

The ghost of dead honor may glide — 
A sense of life's holiest joys departed 

In the lordliest castle abide. 
Tho' the chalice wealth drains should be 
golden, 

No sweeter to him is the draught 
Than the cup with the sparkle of water, 

That humble contentment has quaffed. 

Earth's mines, and her jewel-strewn caverns, 

With the station that title confers. 
All poured at her feet, would not purchase 

The treasure a mother counts hers. 
Ay, hid in your home you will find them — 

Love's riches — vast treasures untold; 
More precious than worldly possessions. 

Though counted, by millions, in gold. 

He ***** * 

Then let not the demon of envy 

E'er enter the soul to enthrall; 
The Father is tenderly watching — 

Is keeping a record of all. 
Eewards we have missed in our earth-life 

We'll find in that mansion above, 
All decked with the beauties of Heaven 

And lighted with Indnite Love. 



90 HAZEL BLOOM 



jVe \^ER a dove came to nestle by me, 
^^-^ But green-eyed Envy was there to see — 
Soiling its plumage of spotless white, 
Making it vile as a raven of night. 
Never a rose in my garden was born, 
But was surrounded by many a thorn. 

Never a sweet but was mingled with gall — 
And freedom, forever, is shadowed by thrall ; — 
Fruit, that looked luscious while hanging in 

view. 
Is blighted ere ripe, by a blistering dew ; 
Gold, that we gather and count as a joy, 
Has little of pleasure and much of alloy ; 
Jealously burns, in her caustical fire. 
My tenderest hope, with malevolent ire — 
Ashes, of all, she has strewn in my path. 
And mocks at my pain with demoniac laugh. 

But hush thy complaining, my heart, and be 

still— 
If Heaven, our measure, with blessings should 

fill. 



HAZEL BLOOM 91 

How soon would the soul with satiety cloy, 
And life would be robbed of delightsome em- 
ploy,— 
Incentive would sleep, and all motive would 

die, 
If needs of our nature should utter no cry ; 
But lacking the goal our ambition would gain 
Arouses our powers — gives strength to attain. 

Our grandest achievements have birth in the 

throes 
Of Penury's labor; and multiplied woes 
But nerve us to action — resist and endure. 
And highest endeavor gives aid to secure 
Success to the valiant in the struggle for right — 
Though failure may sometimes descend like a 

blight— 
Oft failure is blessing, that's sent in disguise 
To turn us from groveling to gaze on the skies. 
Then learn through each trial, my soul, to re- 
joice, 
And e'en from the cloud will Compassion's 

own voice 
Be heard thro' the gloom, in response to your 

cry> 
"Fear not the tempest, my child, it is I." 



92 HAZEL BLOOM 



^^jyHE:N' the pallid lids have fallen 

O'er the eyes in dreamless sleep- 
Eyes that wake no more with watching 

Nor in loneliness will weep, 
Will a touch of pity soften — 

Warm that unimpassioned gaze? 
Eor a moment will affection 

Hallow all their clouded days? 

When the heart, no longer beating. 

All its painful throbbings o'er — 
When it stirs life's crimson current 

With its hopes and fears no more. 
Will another heart feel sorrow 

For the stillness resting there? 
Will it for a whole tomorrow 

Wear a saddened shade of care? 

When the weary hands are folded 
For that long unbroken rest, 

And the spirit wings in freedom 
To its home among the blest. 



HAZEL BLOOM 93 

Will one tender feeling waken 

In that heart a fond regret, 
That will last thro' summer's blooming — 

That will never quite forget? 

When the lips are cold and silent — 

Hushed for aye their gentle speech, 
With love's whispers dying on them, 

Will their mute appealing reach 
To the rock-girt fount of feeling? 

Will Remorse with stinging rod. 
Smite and bring the welling teardrops 

To bedew the new-laid sod? 



94 HAZEL BLOOM 



ALONE, alone I tread the shore 
^^^ Where surges beat forevermore 
With deaf ning, hollow wail; 
The sky, o'ercast with angry frown, 
Doth drop the loaded clouds, low down. 
To beat me with their hail. 

And, helpless here upon the strand 
With no outreaching friendly hand, 

I face the roaring sea. 
With reverent love my soul is stirred, 
And seeking truth within Thy word 

I come, dear Lord, to Thee. 

Aye, take my hand in thine Oh, God ! 
And lead me, where Thine own have trod. 

By waters, pure and sweet. 
0, send thy Comforter to calm 
The aching heart with holy balm, 

And keep me at thy feet ! 

Nature's gift had been more kind 
If a pulpy, plastic mind, 

To^fit, with ease, their mold ; 



HAZEL BLOOM 95 

Then self-assumed, "straight orthodox" 
Had gathered me, with petted flocks, 
Within the church's fold. 

0, loving Christ! Am I not thine? 
And Thy disciples, truly mine, 

Each my sifter or my brother. 
By the heritage of heaven — 
By the new commandment given, 

That we all love one another? 

0, help me Lord with thee to pray! — 
"Forgive them Father," Thou didst say, 

"They know not what they do." 
May sheltering love, dear Lord, be mine — 
0, keep my life thine, only thine, 

My soul to conscience true ! 



96 HAZEL BLOOM 



The chiding word that chills the flow 
Of warm child-feeling, ere it gush 
In sparkling jets, to catch the glow 

And tinge of Life's bright morning flush, 
Is the human thunder-bolt — its path 
Is marked by dwarfed and shrunken minds. 

Souls scarred, as trees by lightning scath, 
Which show, like them, the spoiler's lines. 



HAZEL BLOOM 97 



/^ROWN of all our joys supernal 
^_^^-^Is the hope of life eternal; 

Burst in bloom ye lillies white! 
Wreathe the altar and the cross, — 

Dawn is born of brooding night, 
Heaven's joy of earthly loss, — 

He is Eisen! 

In the starry fields of Heaven 
Mansions bright, to us, are given : 

Triumph o'er the grave He won 
In the resurrection morn — 

Life eternal is begun, 
Hope to all the world is born, 

He is Risen ! 

He hath passed thro' Heaven's portal, 
"We, thro' Him have life immortal — 

Death is met with faith and trust — 
The tomb is lighted by His love ; 

Earth may claim the crumbling dust- 
gouls will dwell with Christ above. 

He is Risen! 



98 HAZEL BLOOM 

Think not thou art left forsaken 
Tho' by sorrow's temptest shaken; 

From His son, God veiled his face — 
Heaven's light was e'en withdrawn, 

But the cruel cross made place 
For the glorious Easter dawn — 

He is Risen ! 



HAZEL BLOOM 99 



TN OLIVE-crowned Gethsemane, 

^ Alone the Savior sought the power 

That wrought through him at Galilee, 

To stay the tide of that dark hour. 
With grief bowed soul he prayed, but grace 

Was His, to say: "Thy will be done." 
From Christ the Father veiled his face 

And gave the world His only Son. 

Tho' His displeasure hid the day, 

Spread brooding terror o'er the land, 
Tho' yielding hate its earth-born sway, 

O'er-ruling Love in wisdom planned; 
While human might did glut its greed 

With nod of law to sanction crime, 
A good, by higher law decreed, 

Went forth, encircling earth and time. 

Far-reaching, 'twas to win the world — 
Their cruel deeds of blinded rage — 

Their mocking taunts like hell-brands hurled, 
Still echo from the sacred page ; 



100 HAZEL BLOOM 

That bitter cup — the crown of thorn 
Upon His suffering, sinless brow — 

That wail, adown the ages borne — 
Are loving worship winning now. 

! blot the hard, blasphemous creed, 

*'A sacrifice for wrath of God;" 
And teach the world 'twas human deed 

That stained with blood Golgotha's sod. 
The reeling earth and darkened sun 

Proclaimed aloud Jehovah's frown; 
Yet taught us that His holy one 

Had by life's cross won Heaven's crown. 

That tho' he passed thro' death — the tomb 

To calm a world in maddened strife, 
From out its broken bars of gloom 

A joy would beam to beacon life. 
And bless for us that morning light 

That points the glory path he trod 
Erom persecution, death and night, 

Through Eesurrection, up to God. 

'Tis through His bearing mortal woes 
We feel the throb of Love Divine! 

Though wrung with agonizing throes. 
His words with God-like mercy shine ; 



HAZEL BLOOM 101 

They wake the world to faith and hope — 
E'en from old Memnon's music trill, 

They turn the dusky Ethiope 

To catch their soul-impassioned thrill. 

''Forgive — they know not what they do!" — 

0, holy prayer! In every tongue 
Its tender pleading pulses thro', 

As when from Calvary's cross it rung! — 
0, arms of Love's infinitude! 

They still reach down to earth from Heaven 
To bind in one great brotherhood, 

Through Him, the rescued world — forgiven. 



102 HAZEL BLOOM 



JESUS]said,%ith tender pleading, 
"If ye love me, feed my lambs"; 
Thro' His word He's interceding — 
Peed my lambs, my precious lambs ; 

(Chorus) — If ye love me, feed my lambs, 

Feed my lambs, my precious lambs- 
If ye love me feed my lambs. 

From the hedges and the highways. 

Bring the lambs all safely in ; 
Seek the wanderers in the byways, 

Save them from the blight of sin. 

If ye love me, etc. 

Find each little son and daughter. 
Bring them in with tender care ; 

Lead them to the crystal water. 
In the pastures green and fair : — 

If ye love me, etc. 



HAZEL BLOOM 103 



®Jt^ ^ixxg^d^tn of g^att^n* 

**Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth 
as in Heaven." 

O, THE kingdom of Heaven will come ! — 
When His will shall be done 
Upon earth, as above, 
And victory won 
Through a union of love, 
Then, the kingdom of Heaven will come. 

Our Christian Endeavor 
Has linked, and forever. 

The lands of all climes 

Where the Savior is known, 
0, bright is the morning 
That brings us the dawning 

Of the day that's to band, 

In one army. His owk ! 
0, the kingdom of heaven will come ! 

When Christians, uniting, 
The common foe fighting 

Forget every difference 

Of doctrine and creed. 



104 HAZEL BLOOM 

And, hushing their pleading 
For selfish succeeding, 

Beg Heaven's best gift 

Tor humanity's need. 
Then the kingdom of Heaven will come. 

When fervent in action 
They trample on faction, 

Intolerance, arrogance, 

Tread them all down. 
And put forth endeavor. 
Through loving work ever, 

Eor the saving of souls 

With no thought of the crown. 
Then, the kingdom of Heaven will come. 

When earnest endeavor — 

Most powerful lever — 
Is thrust under sin 
By all Christendom's might. 

Its walls will soon crumble — 

The structure must tumble 
When hotly assailed 
By the legions of Right , 
Aye, the kingdom of heaven will come. 

When Chrstians are one, 
Like the Father and Son, 



HAZEL BLOOM 105 

And sects of all names 

At one altar can kneel, 
In God's love believing, 
For heaven achieving, 

This creed and this purpose 

Inspiring their zeal, 
Then the kingdom of heaven will come. 



106 HAZEL BLOOM 



O, THOU Savior, Brother, mine, 
God's own love and tenderness, 
Sent of Him with power divine — 

Sent to soothe, sustain and bless : — 
Light of Life! Oh blessed Word, 

Be my help! Dear Savior come ! 
Hear my spirit's pleading. Lord — 
Pleading tho' my lips are dumb. 

Groping now in sorrow's night 

Guide, oh, guide me, Lord, I pray, 

Quicken Thou my spirit's sight 
That I walk in wisdom's way — 

Be Thou, Lord, a presence nigh — 
Thou canst still the angry sea. 
Thou hast known Gethsemane — 

0, Compassion, hear my cry! 

Deep in agony of soul 

Mother-love cries up to Thee — 
Eiends have bound him to the bowl — 
0, break his chains a>^^L set hini free ! 



HAZEL BLOOM 107 



O, AEMS of protection, now folded so 
still!— 
Alone in the world, so wide and so chill! 
0, eyes that would glow in a worshipful gaze ! — 
They'll bless me no more with their love-beam- 
ing rays ! 
0, heart of devotion! thy warm throbbings 

o'er 
Can give me asylum from sorrow no more. 
******** 

0, veil it! — this lifeless creation of art — 
The perfect is sacredly shrined in my heart ! 
Not silent, compassionless, framed in with gold, 
Nor mantled with shadows of coflSn and mould, 
But youthful and strong and warm with the 

fire 
That glows in a soul lit with noble desire. 

Ay, thought gropeth not thro' the darkness 

and gloom 
Where the mortal is held in the bonds of the 

tomb, 



108 HAZEL BLOOM 

Peogkessiok is stamped by the hand of God's 
loTe; 

The life coming after to this is above! 

Our faith reaches up to the realms of bliss, 

The sphere He has fashioned — the Home be- 
yond this. 

The deeds that gave blessing in the pathways 

of earth 
Give impress and form to the Heavenly birth. 
That face, beaming ever with the glorified light 
Won here, in defending convictions of Eight, 
My soul, in its holy of holies, where free 
Erom earth's thronging distractions in spirit I 

see. 

This portrait I gaze on — the glorified one — 
And that is, to this, as a star, to the sun. 



HAZEL BLOOM 109 



©ttt in tlt^ ^00d&^ 

f -w-LiVD haunts of the summer! — the dim for- 
est aisles, 
Where Sylva receives us with welcoming 

smiles — 
Gives coucli of soft mosses, embowered with 

vines, 
And smoothes from the forehead, care's deep 

written lines. 
Eef resiling, she brings, for the world-weary 

brain 
And soothes, with her silence, its fever and 

pain ! — 
Bids Somnus pour sweets from which restful- 

ness flows, 
And, hushing her realm into holiest calm, 
She lulls the sick soul into gentle repose, 
"While winds, with the leafage, are chanting a 

psalm 
That charms with its rythm. Rev'ry's door- 
ways unclose — 
We slip to forgetfulness — sleep that is balm. 



110 HAZEL BLOOM 

The musical tinkle of the murmuring stream 
Gave warp, for the web, of a beautiful dream, 
And woof for the weaving, the slumber-god 

chose 
From fragrance of violets, and queenly wild- 
rose. 
The sunshine that sifted thro' the crowns of 

the trees, 
Made threadings of gold with the shadows of 

these ! 
The breeze, touching lightly, with cool finger 

tips 
Was the kiss of an angel on the tired spirit's 

lips. 
0, the eider-down couches of slumberous ease, 
And the tapestried halls that the millionaires 

please, 
Can never, such rest, on the weary bestow. 
As we find in this palace, where the luxuries 

grow. 

Majestical forest ! — Asylum of Rest, 

Where the crowd- jostled soul is ineffably blest — 

Where primeval old trees, in their grandeur 

and might. 
Guard Solitude's shrine, from the vandal- 
world's sight; 



HAZEL BLOOM 111 

Where spice-bearing shrubs, and the sweet- 
scented ferns 

Float odors as rich as when frankincense burns, 

And the praise-breathing song of the thrush, 
from the boughs. 

Wakes worship unknown thro' the low-rn ut- 
tered vows. 

^'First temples of God!" — and still nearest His 
throne. 

Where the spirit may drink, at the fountain, 
alone, 

Eeceiving His blessing through the still, small 
voice, 

While Nature's true Acolytes whisper — rejoice. 



112 HAZEL BLOOM 



AH! that "Past" — that bitter parting, 
,^^ Long ago, yet vivid seems — 
Oft in midnight's black arms folded 

I have lived it o'er in dreams; 
As a presence it has shadowed 

Every path of life I've tried — 
If I joined the festive circle 
It was stalking by my side. 

If I sat at hnsh of even 

With a sense of love and trust, 
It would come and stand before me, 

Hissing out the word — unjust ; 
It has stretched its ghostly fingers 

For all blessings to destroy. 
And has poured its gall and wormwood 

In each lifted cup of joy. 

Had you winged a sweet forgiveness. 
Sent it o'er the "silent line," 

It had proved a benediction 
Falling on your life and mine. 



HAZEL BLOOM 113 

Throngli the years that phantom presence, 
Like a black bird o'er my door, 

Seemed to say, by silent glowering, 
*'I will leave thee nevermore." 

You can drive this haunting demon. 

Send in place a snowy dove — 
Only breathe the longed for blessing, 

Not youth's fervent tale of love, 
And on friendship's sacred altar 

Light a pure and holy flame. 
That may burn before the angels 

Without blanch or blush of shame. 



114 HAZEL BLOOM 



"At Evening time it shall be light."— Bible. 
"The evening twilight of this life meets the morning 
twilight of the next and they kiss each other." 

L. H. F. 

"'^V/HEN Life's evening twilight gathers 
Darkling shadows from the tomb, 
Then a bright celestial morning 

Kisses back the- gathering gloom ; 
Eobed in beauty's bright adorning 

This aurora — dawning glory. 

Kisses back the gathering gloom. 

When the crimson tide is throbbing 
With the hopes that wildly mount, 

And the sensuous soul is drinking 
From enjoyment's sparkling fount. 

Then the thoughts will turn with shrinking 

Prom the coming of life's gloaming — 
Death seems then a Stygian fount. 

But when life's weary day is closing — 
When the lengthening shadows fall, 

Sweetly singing angel voices 

Come with blessing in their call ! 



HAZEL BLOOM 115 

The departing soul rejoices 
With prevision, of Elysian, 
Gladly welcoming the call. 

As the spirit fetters loosen 

And the soul gains greater height, 
It will see the evening shadows 

Meet and kiss the dawning light ; 
And, dispelling all the shadows, 

This supernal life eternal, 

Opens into morning light. 

Aye, the golden gates swing open ! 

To reveal the splendors bright ; 
From His throne the glory streaming 

Haloes Death with holy light ; 
Angels voicing their rejoicing — 
Heaven's mansions brightly gleaming. 

Flood Life's evening time with light. 



116 HAZEL BLOOM 



^^'^7\0 YOU feel my spirit with you — 
^^ Feel my kiss upon your lips? 

Doth your heart throb with the message 
That the messenger outstrips? 

Ay, I know your thought, responding. 
Know this soul-touch is of thine. 

That you send me tender soothing 
O'er love's subtile, unseen line. 

Soul to soul can tell its sorrow, 
Sympathy response impart — 

Joy can flash o'er lines of distance. 
Touch and thrill a kindred heart. 

Loneliness ! I scarcely know it ; 

Loved ones in my spirit's reach 
Know my call and give me answer — 

Silence pulses with their speech. 

We have glimpse of joys, thro' this one. 

That await the soul above, 
Where unbroken, sweet communion 

Flows thro' sympathy and love. 



HAZEL BLOOM 117 



O, BEAUTEOUS Art! with heart o'erfilled 
with joy I stand 
And offer up to God its silent, grateful praise 
That He, in blessing, hath endowed a human 
hand 
With gifts so near divine ; 
Thro' these creations, warmed to life in 
Genius' blaze. 
Doth inspiration shine. 

Here, oriental scenes are brought within my 

reach ; 
The beauty of the castled Rhine, in softened 

hues. 
With fine, bewitching charm o'er-mastering 

speech. 
My raptured gaze enchains ; 
I roam in dream the land whose purple vintage 

strews 
With wealth its hills and plains. 

And thus I dream and drink the blest enchant- 
ment in, 
That flows from art, with full, ineffable delight ; 



118 HAZEL BLOOM 

Forgetting earth is cursed with sorrow, death 
and sin, 

I taste supernal bliss. 
And, in this ecstacy of joy, a world of light, 

It seems, hath dropped to this. 

Yet not with those I'd join who throng Art's 

crowded hall. 
Whose motive is to prove themselves profound 

in art 
By use of bulky words, but which, in strident 
fall. 
Each hearer doth impress 
With lack of gift to grasp what colors may 
impart. 
Or canvass may express. 

Nor go with her whose hand, with long and 

tedious drill 
Has learned to daub with paint — whose tongue, 

with flippant ease, 
Can toss artistic nomenclature round at will. 

Yet nothins: knows of art — 
Of arts true self, whose secret power to hold 
and please 
Is soul, in every part. 



HAZEL BLOOM 119 

I'd put the shoes from off my feet, and then, 

alone 
Before the work, would feel 1 stood on holy 

ground — 
That there a spirit with its God had talked, and 

by His own 
Had been informed, inspired — 
Aye, minds should be, before they range this 

sacred bound, 
In thoughtfullness attired. 

And thus prepared. Perception's polished plates 

receive 
The artist's dream, that seems with pulsing life 

aglow. 
And o'er it Fancy's magic fingers silent weave 

Her draperies so real — 
We see the dimpling lake — we hear the stream- 
lets liquid flow. 
And shadowed coolness feel. 



120 HAZEL BLOOM 



For the Band of Hope. 

"IflRMLY stand, unyielding wrestle, 
c/ All ye noble, earnest, youth, — 
You are soldiers— God is calling. 
Gird yourselves about with truth. 

Wear the helmet of Salvation — 
Let your feet with peace be shod, 

Turn the fiery darts of evil 

With the shield of ''Faith in God." 

Arm you with the Spirit's weapon, 
'Tis God's blessed, holy word, — 

With the breast-plate of the righteous 
You shall conquer Satan's horde. 

Then with earnest supplication 
Hold the way to Heaven's throne; 

By the spirit's true devotion 

God will know and bless his own, 



HAZEL BLOOM 121 



®0 pij^: gvi^nd^ 

Mrs. AiiTN^A Prichard. 

AISTD is time old? How swift he runs ! 
^^^ His months like birds of passage fly. 
How slow he rolled a year of suns 

When we were children, you and I, 
How far away the spring time seemed 

When winter wore his angry frown — 
An age, when apple blossoms gleamed 
Ere they would drop their fruitage down. 

Then childhood's eager heart was waiting 

For expectations to unfold, 
And churlish time seemed years belating 

The wished-for blessings to withhold ; 
Then Fancy's fingers held the brush 

And painted all the future bright; 
It's clouds but showed the rosy flush 

Each dawn had woven with its light. 

Impatient then, our youthful feet 
To climb the distant sun clad hills 

Where Pleasure, from her vintage sweet. 
For each, a golden chalice fills — 



122 HAZEL BLOOM 

To stand beneath the shining ar^h, 
By rainbow-tinted promise spanned: — 

What fine advance, in Life's grand march, 
Our strong, young courage planned. 

But ah! in life's late afternoon, 

No worldly wealth, no laurels won — 
I grieve that time has fled so soon 

With so much planned , left all undone ; 
The barren years, like surf-worn sand. 

With glints of sun and shadow flecked. 
Are strewn with fragments as the strand 

And show where Hope's rich cargoes wrecked. 

No mould of sloth lies o'er the years — 

No waste of dissipation's fire 
Is smoldering in regrets and tears, 

Yet youth's fond dream — intense desire 
A cruel fate has still denied; 

Or, was it Heaven's kind decree 
That set that cherished wish aside 

To bring a richer gift to me? 

There's naught in God's infinitude 
Of gifts for us, like home and wife, 

And happy, blessed motherhood. 
The crowning gift of woman's life. 



HAZEL BLOOM 123 

These gifts transmute to dear delight 
Each humble task, all toil and care, 

And keep home's sacred altar bright 
With love's sweet offerings there. 

All these, and one more gift is mine 

That stirs with joy my brooding thought — 
A friendship rare and true as thine, 

A chain — all precious links — inwrought 
With sacred trust. Oh hush, my heart. 

No more in bitterness complain : 
Thou wouldst not with thy treasures part 

Youth's wildest dream of power to gain. 



134 HAZEL BLOOM 



To Mrs. A. Foskett Potter. 

HE picture, you raye over there on the wall, 
Is weak by the one hung in memory's hall. 
While that one is held by the fetters of art 
To, rules of perspective — can only give part, 
The other has range over hill-top and dell, 
From the vaulted blue sky to the depths of the 

well — 
Can even give sense of refreshing from this — 
Show stars gleaming thro' from its seeming 
abyss. 

It has other delights, never reached with a 

brush, 
The ravishment held in the notes of a thrush 
(The sweetest voiced bird of the singing-bird 

throng) 
Eeverberant groves all a-thrill with its song. 

Then the river, that knit a bright edge on the 

farm, 
Enmantled with vapor— etherial charm ! 



HAZEL BLOOM 125 

As if dawn and the dew, meeting, playfully 

kissed 
When the sun peeping over dissolved them in 

mist; 
Like a gauzy, white chrisom cloth lightly it lies 
O'er the rosy-faced morning, newborn of the 

skies. 
Now, mellow and sweet as the music of dream. 
Or a softly touched lute, comes the song of the 

stream ; 
Enchanted I listen, ay, listen and gaze 
Till sound seems enwreathed with this lumin- 
ous haze 
That's woven for nymphs, of the sunshine and 

spray; 
And veiled in these light robes they mingle in 

play 
Till on bloom scented breezes they're floated 

away. 

I promised to tell of my humble old home. 
But my pen wanders off where my feet used to 

roam. 
So the home of my childhood I picture for you 
Must cover the rambles "my infancy knew." 
Come, stand 'neath that maple with me, if you 

will: 



126 HAZEL BLOOM 

The manse, looking soutli from the brow of 

the hill, 
Has the Eiver, the valley, "The Island" in 

view — 
(0 ! if mem'ry's bright search-light could give 

it to you. 
And you, with my childhood's own vision, 

could see 
The love-lighted beauty, that glowed there for 

me!) 
While eastward the valley-farms glint thro' the 

trees. 
Whose grandeur had saved them to the thither- 
most shore, 
And hills, as a back ground of beauty for these, 
A richly-robed forest in stateliness bore ; 
And this,. to my child fancy, held up the skies 
Where the dawn, stealing in thro' their bright 

rosy dyes, 
Peeped in at my window to waken me when 
The sun-gleams, aflash in the dew-spangled glen, 
Out rivaled Golconda in jewels and gold — 
When lambkins went frolicking down from the 

fold 
To nip the soft grass or to drink from the 

brook — 



HAZEL BLOOM 127 

Ah, there was a spot, just beyond where they 

drank, 
Where the brook cut the hill for its opposite 

bank, 
And nestled above was a shadowy nook 
With a rustic root-bench which a wind-warring 

tree 
Had thrown out to anchor its hold on the hill: 
There, glad as the laughter of innocent glee, 
Came the musical tinkle and play of the rill, 
A melody sweet, to that asrie of mine. 
Where, safe from intrusion as cliff dweller, 1 
Heard, fresh from her lips, Nature's message 

divine. 
Told sweetly, thro' beauties, of earth and the 

sky. 

An old fallen tree made a foot-bridge across 
That led to this hiding — this sanctum of mine. 
Bright fern fringes bordered its soft rug of 

moss — 
A wild grape had thatched with a clambering vine 
That hid for my coming bright sparkles of dew. 
0, bower of beauty, so temptingly cool! 
'Twas the home of the fairies and they only 

knew 
The hours spent there that were stolen from 

school. 



128 HAZEL BLOOM 

The brook-bordered fields of that moderate 

farm 
Had each, for my heart, individual charm. — 
The skies that bent over had glories unknown 
To all other lands, even Italy's own. 
More golden its sunsets than any since seen :■ — 
Its shadowy woodland, so rich in its green. 
Had springs purling down in a dusky ravine: 
There oft at the fount, where the waters 

distilled. 
My leaf -fashioned cup I have held to be filled. 

0, nectar two aid be if again I could drink 
Of the sparkles that fell there like pearls from 

its brink, 
As it tinkled down sweetly from its rock-basined 

source 
To join with its peers in their river- ward 

course. 
In those shadowy depths, hid away from the 

world. 
Most delicate forms of the fronds were un- 
curled : 
Spring-beauties, anemonies, clematis white. 
With violets, bluebells and maiden-hair fern, — 
There were some of them ever to keep the spot 

bright. 
To waft me good-bye and to greet my return. 



HAZEL BLOOM 129 

Then the hillside, our play-ground — I never 

can tell 
Its riches of beauty in bower and dell. 
The sunrise would kiss with its first ruddy glow 
Then slip to the river that murmured below 
And lighting its ripples with flashes of gold 
It made all the valley a joy to behold. 
That Eiver! It ever kept tiaie with my heart, — 
Grew into my soul, of my life was a part. 
It echoed my laughter, was sad when I wept — 
When drowsy it lulled me with song till I slept. — 
'Twas playmate and teacher, companion and 

friend. 
From the *' deep-hole" that mirrored the trees 

at *' the bend" 
To that spot of enchantment, where the wil- 
lows bent low 
To whisper their love. There the river went 

slow 
As if hushing its wonted, wild, rollicking flow 
To linger and listen — the story, so sweet, 
'Twould have all the zephyr-swayed branches 
repeat. 

But the loveliest view from the home on the 

hill— 
The one that could ever enrapture and thrill, 



130 HAZEL BLOOM 

Was a calm summer eve with the stars beaming 

thro' 
Trom the unclouded depths of the fathomless 

blue, — 
*'The city of God" filling vastness above, 
Each mansion aglow with the light of His love. 
Enhancing the beauty a broad, rising moon, 
That followed a day with a languorous noon — 
A day that in going left the sun- door ajar. 
When a breeze, that was born of a rain-cloud 

afar. 
Had stolen thro, softly, with the great evening 

star. 
And whispered 'a vow to the languishing flow- 
ers 
To bring them, ere morning, refreshing in 

showers. 

Then the murmur of waters — the ripple in view, 
The robings of Nature, aglitter with dew, 
The sway of the trees, and the rose-petals 

strewn — 
The kiss of the breeze, that has breath of the 

June. 
Just sit in our group on the balcony there 
And dream of this scene, inexpressibly fair 
(Remember this gable looks square at the 

noon) : 



HAZEL BLOOM 131 

How the gateways of glory thrown wide ty the 

moon 
Could pour their white floods on the beautiful 

scene — 
What charm in the mingling of shadow and 

sheen ! 

The river went north in its tortuoas trend 
And wound thro' the valley with many a bend. 
This lake-like expanse, deep and smoothe, as 

you see, 
Lying right in the pathway, 'tween Luna and 

me, 
On an evening like this seemed a great bur- 
nished glass. 
The Island shore here, had a margin of grass — 
The round little cove cutting into its edge 
Grew ferns on its banks and was dotted with 
sedge. 

In the far-reaching shadows of lofty old trees 
This part of the Island was hid from the noon ; 
Its quiet invited to slumberous ease ; 
Here the Kiver flowed gently as Afton or Doon. 
Kind Nature had woven a pleachy thick screen 
Of forest and vines that were standing between. 
And made this remote from the town and its 
mills. 



132 HAZEL BLOOM 

The zepli3^r-stirred leaves with their mystical 

chant — 
That soft, lulling murmur, that muffles and 

• stills — 
Hushed the tumult and jar of the noisy *'old 

plant" 
And made this a spot ever calm and serene, 
Fit temple for worship, embosomed in green. 
Here, the river seemed charmed by some 

mythical lore — 
It loitered along, seemed reluctant to pass, 
While eddying wavelets crept up on the shore 
And kissed, with their cool lips, the velvety 

grass. 

On, slowly it flows until reaching a place 

Where a glimpse may be caught of the swift 
running "Kace;" 

There it breaks into foam with a current so 
wild — 

They rush to the meeting like mother and 
child. 

With a plaint in its story that the mother- 
stream thrills, 

Race babbles and tells how it toiled at the 
mills — 



HAZEL BLOOM 133 

Was prisonned and held, by the strength of 

the flume — 
Was power that wrought on the spindle and 

loom. 
Eeceived in her bosom with loving embrace 
They mingle their songs, then, the River and 

Race, 
Delighting us all with their musical tones, 
While silver-capped ripples go dancing o'er 

stones. 



Aye, "Hill-crest" had beauty beyond all com- 
pare. 

But words can ne'er picture how wondrously 
fair 

For one whose misfortune 'tis not to have seen 

That river— that hillside— the trees in their 
green — 

Heard the music of waters, o'er pebbles at 

play, 
Or, lapping 'mong rocks and then swirling 

away — 
The brook leaping down to be lost in the 

stream 
As Avomanhood merges our girl-hood's young 

dream — 



134 HAZEL BLOOM 

If her cliildhood's bare feet have ne'er 

pressed that cool sod 
Where first I loved Nature, thro' Nature her 

God. 



HAZEL BLOOM 135 



gmua of tit* ^aXI«», 

O, PEARLY, waxen, lilly bells ! 
Glad the tale your coming tells — 
Blithest time, of all the year, 
Happy, blooming spring is here 
With lillies-of-the-valley. 

Shining like the precious gem, 

Divers bring from ocean's floor; 
God in blessing scattered them 

Blooming by the humblest door ; 
Springing in some sheltered nook, 

Peeping by a mouldering wall, 
Nodding by a babbling brook, 

Purest, sweetest flowers of all. 

Are lillies-of-the-valley. 

Hidden from life's cares and frets 
Is the loved embowered spot 

Sacred to our floral pets — 
Lillies and forget-me-not; 

Tho' the poet's fondest dream 



136 HAZEL BLOOM 

Wreaths about the violet, 
With the morning's dew agleam, 
Lovlier and sweeter yet 
Are lillies-of-the-valley. 

Eoses fade and fall apart — 

Lose their beauty with their bloom, 
In the lillies perfect heart 

Lingers long its sweet perfume ; 
Mem'ries dear we'll ne'er forget. 

With their tender thrills of bliss, 
Hover round the mignonette, 

Yet, a charm supreme to this, 
Have lillies-of-the-valley. 

Queens of color, tall and proud 

Bloom among the asphodels. 
But of all that lauded crowd 

None so loved as lilly bells ! 
Pansy bright with dreamy eyes 

Seems acquaint with mystic lore, 
Whispers "hope" when sorrow sighs. 

Yet, we love the lillies more, 
Sweet lillies-of-the-valley. 

They will breathe the tender thought 
Sympathy would fain reveal. 

But, with love's fond message fraught. 
Half their charm is to conceal. 



HAZEL BLOOM 137 

Lillies of the Valley. 
Rosebud boldly tells the tale 

Cupid sent it to confess — 
With the fragrance they exhale 

Lillies whisper, — "You may guess." 



138 HAZEL BLOOM 



ALL the rain-bow hues are hiding 
^^^ In the pearly shells of white, 
But their beauties are depending 

On the mystic powers of light ; — 
Going, coniing, like the blushes 
On a modest maiden's cheek, 
As her heart-throb quick confesses 
What her lips would never speak. 

Husband, there's a heart that's loving 

With devotion pure and deep ; 
If you'd know its fullest blessing. 

If the treasure you would keep. 
You must flash the light upon it. 

Beaming out from loving eyes ; 
Then, as shell, reflecting sunlight. 

It will glow with lovely dyes. 

All within and all about it 

Soon will catch the won'drous charm, 
By reflection and absorption 

Home will aye be bright and warm ; 



HAZEL BLOOM 139 

But if left alone in darkness, 
Through a life of gloom and night, 

Like the sea-shell, pure and pearly. 
It will be but cold and white. 



140 HAZEL BLOOM 



IVTOW with zeal that will not falter 
<^-^ Eally once again for Eight, 
Trusting ever and believing 
God is all supreme in might. 

Let us work — give earnest effort, 
Ere the day in darkness set, 

Work with faith and love untiring- 
He will crown our labors yet. 

Though allies of rum are legion, 

Fear no evil may betray, 
Eor He's given angels o'er us 

Charge to keep us in the way. 

We shall "tread upon the adder," 
If our faith be strong in God ; 

Aye, "the dragon we shall trample" 
If with "Gospel Peace" we're shod. 



HAZEL BLOOM 141 



Emblematic Flower of Michigan W, C. T. U. 

IN FLORA'S dominion no flower's so fitting 
To symbol our union of labor and love ; 
Not tender and petted, a hot-house exotic, 

It lives when the tempest is raging above. 
Sweet forest-born flower! 'Twas Michigan's 
dower 
When Nature apportioned her gifts that are 
rare — 
So lovely, yet lowly! Affection, that's holy. 
Seems blent with its fragrance and breathing a 

prayer 
That the loved may be borne in the arms of 
His care. 

Its coming we hail as a promise of blessing — 

That chains shall be riven, a glory be born ; 
Its delicate hue is a hint of our mission — 
The soft, rosy blush that first tinges the 
morn. 
When hope is awakening and gloom is reced- 
ing— 



142 HAZEL BLOOM 

A pressage of light that shall gladden the 
world, 
When darkness has fled and the cloud-rack is 

lifted 
And day's golden banners on the hills are 
unfurled. 

It needs not the florist, with art and punctilio 
Nor asks for the smiles of the sun-lighted 
skies, 
But richest and brightest, 'tis found in seclu- 
sion, 
In depths of the woodland where dark 
shadow lies; 
Far up on the highlands, or creeping on low- 
lands, 
'Mong towering oaks or 'neath whispering 
pines, 
The shell-tinted bloom of our sweet, trailing 
laurel 
The lowliest objects with beauty entwines. 

'Tis Purity's emblem — Priscilla's loved flower! 
Oft springing in fenlands where dark, sod- 
den mould 

Grows vile-odored herbage, e'en poison-fed 
night-shade. 



HAZEL BLOOM 143 

Yet, pure there, its waxen, sweet blossoms 
unfold- 
Thus white-ribbon bands, thro' the moral mor- 
asses, 
Tho' threading the paths which the vilest 
are in, 
With purity throned in the soul of all action. 
May labor 'mid evils, unsullied by sin. 

Ah ! truly, no flower in Flora's dominion. 

Can symbol the virtues and graces like this — 

'Tis faith and endurance in winter's wild 

tempest. 

While gentleness tenderly speaks in the kiss 

That comes in its fragrance, on fairy winged 

zephyr 
And hope, in the buds swelling under the 

snow. 
Is whispering of joys when the full opened 
blossoms 
Shall herald the summer, with roseate glow. 

We'll gather it in, from our own native wood- 
lands, 
And wreathe, with its beauty, our altar of 
prayer; 
The holiest thought, with its ambient odor, 
Is stirred, as with incense, afloat on the air. 



144 HAZEL BLOOM 

We love it! — we love it! our sweet trailing 
laurel, 
And make it our emblem in labor for Grod — 
For home, with its blessings and love-lighted 
altar, 
And land of our birth, with its trial-tracked 
sod. 



HAZEL BLOOM 145 



Y\ SAT wealth of enjoyment a sentence 
may hold 
That flows in a rill of encouraging words ! 
The heart's weary wings with new strength 
will unfold, 
While quick resolution all feebleness girds. 
The sunset may brighten — outrival the dawn- 
ing, 
If sympathy's warm touch the drooping life 
thrills ; 
Tho' autumn has put out her gold-tassled awn- 
ing 
And mantled with haze all the woodlands 
and hills — 
Tho' the vintage hath yielded the first of its 

wines — 
Tho' shadows lie eastward in wavering lines, 
And evening has whispered the low uttered 

warning — 
The glories of Day have all drifted afar" — 
The spirit will rally encouraged by love. 



(< 



146 HAZEL BLOOM 

E'en twilight may deepen, if only this star 
Shall gleam with its vestal light brightly 
above, 
We'll work thro' life's gloaming, till angels 
unbar 
The orient gates of Eternity's morning. 



HAZEL BLOOM 147 



O, BY and by the sun will shine again — 
Will throw glad light on hill, and field, 
and plain; 
The earth will smile 'neath Plenty's joyous 

reign, 
And we shall know that "God remembers the 
world." 

Aye, by and by the clouds will roll away 
And then a greater boon, a golden day 
Will seem, because we've known a gloomy May 
When Doubt, o'er brooding, shadowed all our 
world. 

Let Hope's bright sunshine gladden every 

hour. 
E'en tho' the skies with angry tempests lower; 
Believe, beyond, above, a higher Power 
Doth watch and guard, with loving, care the 

world. 

Shrink not nor e'er, with dread, thy part 
delay ; 



148 HAZEL BLOOM 

With faith and courage meet each coming 

day- 
Let duties well performed pave all thy way, 
Thus make a royal pathway thro' the world. 

Tho' sorrows should be thick along thy path, 
Eemember none are sent to thee in wrath ; 
Love fires the bolt that makes the lightning 

scath — 
A law that gives a brighter, better world. 

With frowning face Calamity may come. 
Ay, strike a hemisphere with terror dumb, 
But let no boding fear thy faith benumb, 
For He who made, in wisdom rules the world. 

Tho' skies and seas their floods together roll — 
Tho' earth should pass, a shriveled scroll. 
His care is over each immortal soul — 
He'll gather us to His eternal world. 



HAZEL BLOOM 14 



'^^^OSSESSION blest of that Celestial 

^ sphere 

Beyond the reach of hope and fear ; 

Salvation's port — Elysian shore 

Where souls remain, forevermore, 
In blissful calm, disturbed by naught 
Evolved by ranging, restless Thought, 

And where Eternal arms of Peace 

Enfolding, give secure release 
From chains that bind, to Death and Sin — 
A severance from the What-has-been — 

An end of seeming endless range ; 

No farther transmigrating change. 
But Eest of soul, that's sweet, supreme, 
Beyond, the touch of Life's wild dream: 

A draught that quenches all desire — 

Extinguishes Ambition's fire, 
And leave, an essence, pure, divine. 
That shall with Brama ever shine, 

Queiscent in that blest repose 

To which the wise Guatama rose. 



150 HAZEL BLOOM 



TThRO' your Eden creeps the Serpent 

Luring to the paths of sin : 
In your own, weak self-indulgence 

Life accursing crimes begin : 
Aye, you blight your own with evils 

Yielding to the tempter's sway, 
Hushing conscience. Sin imputing 

To Eve's early, shadowed day. 

Science swings her torch above you 

From her lofty templed heights — 
Paths, by which the Eace climb upward, 

By command of God she lights ; 
Can you, with His laws before you, 

Violate your sacred trust? 
Dare you taint the soul you're moulding 

For Eternity, with lust? 

Holy is your mission, mother. 
Lives confided to your care — 

Shall they, of your dissipations 
Foulest scars forever bear? 



HAZEL BLOOM 151 

Hush the voice of self-indulgence — 
Thrust the serpent from your heart, 

That he lure not to partaking 
Of the sins you may impart. 

While the fires of Being kindle 

At your own life's flame and glow 
And the mother love is springing 

From this holy interflow — 
While the crimson tide is pulsing 

Thro' but one heart, for the two, 
Stain not thou, with sin, the fountain 

That the new life passes through. 



152 HAZEL BLOOM 



^^^S^EBBLES, thrown upon the shore 
^ By a storm-stirred wild commotion, 

Tell of tumult, crash and roar, 
When wild furies lashed the ocean. 

Pebbles, gathered from the shore 
When the waves were only sighing. 

Tell of balmy evening strolls 

When the sunset fires were dying. 

Pebbles — some of brightest hue — 
That were snatched by dimpled fingers 

When the waves came rolling in — 
Loving thought around them lingers. 

Pebbles, in life's pathway lie 
That the careless roughly tread, 

While another passing by 
Einds them gems that lustre shed. 

Pebbles — scan them — cast away 
Wave-worn, rounded bits of stone, 



HAZEL BLOOM 153 

But if one hath lighting ray, 
Keep the treasure as thine own. 

* * * * 

When the heart is sorrow-laden 
Seek the spirit's shrine of prayer, 

Jesus there will meet and hless you 
And you'll leave your burdens there. 



As the blessed, healing mentha 
Holds for mortal pains nepentha, 
So hath sympathy the art 
To soothe the bruises of the heart. 



From each act, however small, 
Some result must ever fall ; 

Drop a pebble in the wave — 

Distant shores its ripples lave. 

* * * * 

Give gladness to childhood! 'twill brighten 

life's years; 
Pour hydromel for it, unmingled with tears, 
So fondly, caressingly, memory clings 
To youth's every joy, forgetting its stings. 



154 HAZEL BLOOM 

Experience teaches some lessons of worth — 
That wealth is not always of lordliest birth, 
That duty makes labor, tho' humble, 
sublime — 
That crucial trial gives strength to the soul : — 
There's no royal road to Life's coveted goal. 
Earth's throngs must all pass the same door- 
way of Time. 



If Heaven's light beam on your tears, 
Hope's bright bow will span the cloud, 

While Grod's own promise, calming fears, 
Will lift the soul by sorrow bowed. 



Mystery deep, thy doors unbar. 
And let us look within ! — 

Thought goes ranging far — afar, 
On webs our fancies spin. 



The life I live is not my own — 

'Tis subterfuge and dross, 
The yearning soul makes hidden moan, 

With secret sense of loss. 



HAZEL BLOOM 155 

0, dear Savior, I am weary — 

Let me rest my soul with Thee ! 
Mansions bright, Thou art preparing — 

Wilt thou, Jesus, welcome me? 
* * * * 

For the bright, warm joys, once cherished. 
There's a withered rose and a brown, sere 
leaf; 
Ah ! dear were the hopes that perished. 

Yet there's wealth of life, in the golden 
sheaf. 

^ •!• T* T* 

When a gleam of the sun, thro' a rift in the 
storm. 
Throws a light on our path, that was shad- 
owed before. 
We look to the cloud, for the beautiful form 
Of the bow, that is promise to us, evermore. 

4c Hi 4: «H 

The rose is girt with thorns about, 

The berries sweet, with briars — 
Thus Fate doth ever hedge us from 

Our heart's supreme desires. 

* * * * 

Tossing, rolling, restless sea. 
Picture thou of Life to me — 



156 HAZEL BLOOM 

Shadow-clouds now floating o'er, 
Foam and drift-wood on the shore : — 
Depths of dark and billowy waves, 
Wrecking hopes and hollowing graves — 
Breaking on the beach in moans, 
Seem thy cavern's echoed groans. 

Prosperous winds, and thou wilt bear. 
On thy heaving bosom fair. 
Snowy sails, with treasures laden 
From the distant, sun-kissed Aden, — 
Costly fabrics — richest stores. 
For their own, dear, home-lit shores, 
Where Love's altars brightly burn. 
While she waits their glad return. 

* * * * 

In all this beauteous world of ours 
What gift, of Love, so sweet as flowers ! 

* * * * 

0, sweet is the fountain of soothing 
That ever is found in His Word — • 

Drink deeply when heart-wounds are bleeding 
And the peace of the spirit is stirred. 



HAZEL BLOOM 157 



O, WOEDS may be loving and mellow in 
tone, 
Sweet as the dew on the flowers of Hermon, 
Gently imparting a blessing their own, 
Precious with promise, as Olivet's sermon. 

Words may be careless, and cruel and coarse — 
Be tauntingly hurled, or so bitterly spoken, 

Eesistless as lightning's destroying force. 
They scar with their scathing the heart they 
have broken. 

Words may have edge that is keener than 
steel — 
May pierce with their points like the swift- 
flying arrow ; 
They hurt with these stings while the victim 
will feel. 
Then tear through the heart like a torturing 
harrow. 

Words may be venomed with malice and spite. 
May wither with scorn, with contempt and 
derision — 



158 HAZEL BLOOM 

Be dreaded like adders when coiling to bite 
Or hiss out their poison in whispered sus- 
picion. 

Aye, words may be vile as a basilisk's breath — 

A falsehood the germ — an ovum of evil, 
Impregnate with calumny's virus innate. 

Then heated and hovered by envy and hate ; 
Thus "brooded by serpents," like the monster 
medieval. 
Come forth with his powers of blasting with 
death. 

But words that are warmed in the sunlight of 
love 
Will soothe with their feeling a brother's 
affliction ; 
'Tis the Spirit from heaven that comes like a 
dove, 
So gently descending in sweet benediction. 

'Tis blessed receiving what kindness imparts. 

How trifling so ever the token, 
Thrice blessed, the giving of solace to hearts "" 
That words of injustice have blighted and 
broken. 
There's comfort and balm for life's various 
smarts 
In words of true sympathy, tenderly spoken. 



HAZEL BLOOM 159 



f^ H ! MOTHER, mine, mother, mine, come 
^^ to me now, 

With a touch of thy hand sweep the care 
from my brow ; 
Oh, come, on the wings of the silences come, 
Dear mother, my own, as you reigned in our 
home. 

Oh ! mother, mine, mother, mine, come now at 
eve. 
I sit in the gloaming, in loneliness grieve ; 
The world is so selfish, so cold and unkind. 
Sweet solace for pain in thy love I would 
find. 

Oh! mother, mine, mother, mine, hear me, I 
pray! 
In the silence of night, blot the sorrows of 
day; 
And point me away from the earth and its care. 
To the beautiful dwelling — that mansion so 
fair, 



160 HAZEL BLOOM 

Where mother, mine, mother mine, waiteth 

for me, 
With loved ones who 're watching my barque 

on life's sea — 
Who'll stretch out their welcoming hands from 

the shore, 
When I reach the glad haven, all buffetings 

o'er. 



HAZEL BLOOM 161 



ThEEE are hands we fondly cherish 

Not alone for form and grace, 
But the loving deeds that mold them, 
Place them next a sainted face. 

They can soothe as if with magic. 

When the fever-furies rage ; 
Their caresses, unobstrusive. 

E'en a heartache can assuage. 

Hands can emphasize a welciime, 
Ear beyond the gifts of speech, 

And their language, plain and truthful, 
Doubt did never yet impeach. 

Aye! there's feeling warm and tender, 

Ever pulsing in the palm. 
In whose kindly, silent pressure 

Sorrow finds a healing balm. 

Love's sweet mysteries course their fingers, 

For their lightest touch of tips 
Has the secret gift of thrilling. 
:^Like affection's clinging lips. ' ; 



162 HAZEL BLOOM 

They can knit with mystic flosses 

Such a net about the heart — 
Earth has naught so near a heaven 

As this thraldom doth impart. 

Hands have heartbeats throbbing through them 
And the lightning flash of thought; 

'Tis by such that grand impulsions 
Into living deeds are wrought. 

Hands may be a sculptor's pattern, 
Tipped with smooth, shell-tinted nails. 

Yet convey a touch, repulsive 
As of scaly serpent trails. 

If the soul is gross and selfish. 
There's no art the trait conceals. 

But the hand in mold or clasping, 
To the sentient heart reveals. 

Idle hands are limp and nerveless, 

Lack expression, fervor, grasp — 
They receive nor give sensation. 

Simply lie within your clasp. 

Hands may flash a wealth of jewels. 

Yet display a pauper soul — 
God inscribes these outspread tablets 

From the spirit's hidden scroll. 



HAZEL BLOOM 163 



^^yra^N the noble son of Zeus 

Asked the gift of youth immortal, 
Little wot he of the ages 

Stretching onward from life's portal; 
Tho' he walked with gods, he wearied. 

Wished for rest, intense and deep, — 
Asked another gift of Zeus ; 

That of everlasting sleep. 

And his thoughtless wish was granted ; 

Glad he hushed his soul's repining 
In the winged god's misty vapors 

And, on Latmos' height reclining. 
Laid down all earth's cares and trials — 

All its wearying heat and strife. 
Yet within his dormant being. 

Held the essences of life. 

Fair Selene, robed in beauty. 
Wandering forth in loneliness, 

Bent above the youth admiring — 
Touched him with a light caress ; 



164 HAZEL BLOOM 

And her gazing woke his spirit 

To a dream's ecstatic bliss, 
As her lips, with tender fondness. 

Snatched from his that holy kiss. 

And her heart's new, quickened pulsing 

Thrilled along love's unseen wires, — 
Stirred in him responsive passion, — 

Lit his soul's electric fires. 
Then the roused, enrapt Endymion, 

Shaking off the slumbrous air. 
Cried, — "Ye gods, take back your giving. 

All life's perils I will dare; 
Wake my soul to keenest feeling. 

Let its sense of pleasure reign, 
Tho' my path were paved with spear-points 

I would count the waking gain." 

Glad he left the heights so longed for. 

Sought the lowland's balmy air, 
Leading her, the loved Selene, 

Thro' the flowery valleys fair. 
Where the paths all flash with diamonds 

Prom the jewelled crown of Night, — 
Where the lake upon his bosom 

Kocks the sleeping lillies white, 



HAZEL BL003I 165 

And his lullaby in whispers 

Floating thro' the leafy dell, 
Mingling with perfume and zephyr 

Wove a sweet entrancing spell. 

And 'twas there at Sylva's altar, 

With the gazing stars above. 
Soul to soul, by mute impulsion. 

That they pledged eternal love ; 
Ay, 'twas then the spheric paean. 

Through the great expanses spread, 
When in Beauty's listening stillness. 

Peace and Purity were wed. 

And tonight I see them roaming 

Thro' the flowery paths of eld — 
Thro' the valley, by the lakelet, 

Where their nuptial feast was held ; 
Where the moon-beams dance with shadows. 

In the hushed, half-hidden glen, 
Shunning Mammon's crowded cities 

And the busy walks of men. 

But linger not too long, Selene,--- 

Hasten from thy lover's side, 
Or, in fleecy cloud-wrought vesture 

Erom the gaze of Eos hide ; 



166 HAZEL BLOOM 

Else like darkly mantled Pleiad, 
Wailing robes of forfeit glory, 

Thou wilt find thy charms are stolen 
By the jealous, fair Aurora. 

Hasten, hasten, for she cometh, — 

Venus bright doth herald now. 
All Jove's pageantry attends her, 

Erse's gems bedeck her brow, 
And her royal robes are 'broidered 

Eich with rose and amethyst ; — 
Hasten, but with thine Endymion 

Keep the holy evening tryst. 



HAZEL BLOOM 167 



TJ^EASTES saw with vain regret 
-■"A^cs^A hedge of guards was thickly set 

Around the fair one he would woo ; 
For Flora's aid he quick applied — 
*'Be art of yours with Love's allied 

And Cupid's throng shall kneel to you." 

Then Flora wrought that mystic flower 
And graced with it Love's Sylvan hower, 

And there a wildling still it grows; 
The hue she gave was pearly white, 
But Love would add one more delight 

And mingled in a blush of rose. 

T'was given such an artless guise 
That e'en suspicion's prying eyes 

Doth no intriguing plan suppose : 
And there within, securely hid, 
Beneath the blossom's fringy lid 

The lover's missive finds repose. 



168 HAZEL BLOOM 

**Wilt thou, dear maid, thy wealth resign 
And drink with me love's ruby wine — 

In weal or woe my fortune's share?" 
She wrote and hid — **I will be thine — 
With love's devotion ever mine 

There's naught but I could dare." 

A closely folded plan for flight 

(That marked the nearest moonless night,) 

The Orchid in its heart concealed. 
"While vigilance unconscious slept, 
Two dusky steeds thro' darkness swept 

Across an unfrequented field 
And brought the lovers quickly where 
A waiting priest, with pledge and prayer, 

The sacred bonds of wedlock sealed. 

Paternal pride aroused, irate. 

With bluster came, a moment late, — 

The holy rite had joined their hands, 
The vows were made, the pledges given 
That bound the twain as one in heaven, 

Despite his wrath and stern commands. 

**How could you thus," he cried in rage, 
**Defy my will, disgrace my age! 
I'll disinherit and disown — 



HAZEL BLOOM 169 

And you shall have eternal scorn 
For wedding with that lowly born — 
Aye, you shall reap as you have sown." 



*'0, woman! thou art gall and wine — 
Deceit's worst name, to me, is thine! 
I thought her will succumbed to mine, 

So cheerful, happy, she had seemed. 
I felt within a conscious pride 
In power to hold, subdue and guide — 

That she was conquered, fondly dreamed." 

** Along the wood she walked with me. 
Among the wild flowers, gay and free, 

(I guarded her with watchful eye,) 
With eager hand she plucked and smiled 
As guileless as a happy child — 

No love-lorn look — no sob or sigh." 

"Aye, woman's ways and woman's wiles 
Are knitted in with looks and smiles 

By which man's wisdom oft is foiled. 
She'll seem so gently yielding ivill 
While scheming for her own way, still — 
With sweet deceits will blind us, till 

Our dearest hopes have been despoiled." 



170 HAZEL BLOOM 

"But, 'tis senseless nursing helpless wrath, 
Shall I strew thorns along her path 

Whose only dower's a father's curse? — 
Drive them out with want to roam? 
I think I'll take the couple home — 

In truth, her parents did much worse." 



Calypso, still with winning grace. 
Adorns the ferny, sedgey place 

By purling hrook or shaded dell, 
And only Cupid knows its art 
Of hiding in its fragrant heart 

The secret, sweet, that Love would tell. 



HAZEL BLOOM 171 



^y^OT the fierce-destroying power 
®>^ Of the hot sirocco's breath, 
Withering every tender flower, 
Strewing all its path with death 
Or helpless, silent sorrow. 

'Tis a strength that holds each feeling 

But a slave to do its will — 
Every wish, abjectly kneeling. 

Waits its mandate to fulfill 

Or creeps, by stealth, in shadow. 

'Tis Life's sacred, golden chalice. 
From as rich a vintage filled 

For the cottage, as the palace — 

Sweetest draughts have been distilled 
With want upon the lever. 

'Tis a tender, true devotion, 
Never soiled by thoughts of pelf, 

But with gladsome, sweet emotion 
To its altar bringing self, 
A sacrificial offering. — 



172 HAZEL BLOOM 

Joy's bell whose silver ringing 

Down the ages has been borne 
Ever since in Eden, singing, 

Wedded love hailed rosy morn — 
Still the tones fall sweet as ever. 

'Tis the Horeb of the spirit, 

Where no coarse-shod thought may tread, 
The part divine, which souls inherit 

From love's holy Fountain-Head, 
Influent with our being. 



HAZEL BLOOM 173 



*^ 



EAR the bells, distant bells! 
^How the merry music swells, 



As the steed, with noble speed, 
Nearer, nearer, nearer comes, 

Strength doth wing his flying feet ; 
Onward, onward, onward going. 

With a strong and rythmic beat; 
Youth, with health and beauty glowing, 

Blends a rippling , laughter peal 

With the ringing hoofs of steel — 
How the mingling music hums! 

Hear the bells, joyous bells! 
Love's sweet tale their music tells, 

As they go o'er glistening snow; 
Wildly, wildly, rushing by. 

Fainter grow the hoof -beats now. 
Fainter, fainter, fainter growing ; 

Venus shines on evening's brow. 
Moonlight floods o'er earth are flowing; 

0, the reckless wild delights 

Of a sparkling, winter night's 
Sleighing, 'neath a moonlit sky ! 



174 HAZEL BLOOM 

Ho, the bells, merry bells ! 
Rapture in their music dwells ; 

Raptures sweet, in bliss repeat. 
Gliding, gliding, o'er the snow. 

Every pulse with pleasure thrills ; 
To the heart new joys revealing. 

As when spring-time, bird-note trills 
Stir the sweetest fount of feeling, 

"Welling with all tender thought. 

From the dulcet music caught. 
Blending all in joyous flow! 

*«!> ^ «1« ■!• «!• ^ 

»!♦ Sfi rj^ ^ ?p; *f» 

Hark, the bells — ^homeward bells! 
Something now their music quells, 

For they go, tinkling — so — 
Tinkle — tinkle — seem to wait ; 

Why that steed such lagging feet. 
When returning, homeward going? 

('Mong the furs their faces meet) — 
Ah ! that nag is very knowing. 

Stepping lightly o'er the snow — 

Have their whispers, soft and low. 
Changed his mood and changed his gait? 



HAZEL BLOOM 



175 



Tender and true as the starlight of heaven, 
■ Sweet as the heart of a bud when it opes, 

Swift as the flash of the cloud-leaping levin. 
Rich as the springtime in promise and hopes, 

Pure as the gleam of the dew on the flowers 
Is love's first awakening in youth's dreamy 
hours. 

It sings in the heart like a forest-hid rill- 
Runs over its rim like a rock-basined spring; 

Strong, it o'erpowers cold reason with will, 
Impulsively binding two lives with a ring. 

It goes where it listeth, unreined as the wind. 
So reckless, 'tis said, that the love god is 
blind. 

Joyful, yet trembling like a zephyr-kissed rose. 

Flushing and paling like skies of the dawn, 
Silent, lest speech shall the secret disclose, 

AYayward and shy as a mountain-bred fawn, 
Elying the bosom where yearning to rest. 

Hushing the tenderness, thrilling the heart, 
Palpitant tempests disturbing the breast ; 

Enjoying — enduring the sweet and the smart 
That comes of the wounding with Cupid's first 
dart. 



176 HAZEL BLOOM 



O, GKAND and worshipful that being man, 
As fashioned by a maiden's dream-lit 
mind! 
To her, his soul has nobleness enshrined — 
'Tis pure — Love's altar-place, where God be- 
gan, 
'Neath Eden's flow'ry groves, the household 
plan. 
In rose-mist wreathed, by sweet enchantment 

blind, 
How oft she's worshiped, wedded, but to find 
The real, no more her dream, than piping Pan. 

Some "noble deeds" bear cold ambition's stain, 

And chaff is found amoug Love's golden grain. 

'Tis well the rose-mist lifts and clearer beams 

Show man's real self, e'en tho' it give her pain, 

Else, so idolatrous, she might, it seems, 

Forget her God, if he were all she dreams. 



HAZEL BLOOM 177 



@tru^t of (g^itil&ltxood* 

AN ANGEL comes down from the realms of 
^ light, 

To guard me in slumber, thro' hours of the 

night; 
Her presence is gentle, I feel she is there. 
As soon as I've uttered my evening prayer; 
So tenderly watching she stays in my room 
Till darkness has folded his mantle of gloom. 
I've felt on my forehead her soft finger tips 
And the touch of her kiss, lightly pressed on 

my lips. 
To waken me gently, ere leaving my bed. 
When morning's bright beauties o'er earth had 

been spread. 

Forbearing to open my earth-gazing eyes 
To look on the guardian sent from the skies, 
I've listened and heard, e'en the rustle of 

wings ; 
And then at the casement, where mocking bird 

swings, 



178 HAZEL BLOOM 

A sweeping of roses and jasmines I've heard, 
And knew that their beauty and perfume were 

stirred 
By her gossamer robes, as she hastened away, 
To the rose-tinted gateway that opens to day; 
(For Heaven, I know, is but little beyond, 
Where glories of morn, in its borders have 

dawned) ; 
And then by the holiness left in the room. 
Afloat, like the fragrance from violet bloom, 
I knew that a prsence had surely been there, 
Had left with me blessing, and wafted my 

prayer 
To the throne of the Father for guidance and 

care. 



0, trust of my childhood! bright halo of 

youth ! 
Come, veil for tonight the stern visage of truth; 
With faith that's elysian, I'd drift down the 

stream 
To imagery islands, with beau by agleam. 
And hear, as I heard in the far away years, 
(Ere fancj/ 's young dream had been melted in 

tears), 



HAZEL BLOOM 179 

A strain from a harp, floating over to me, 
From a cloud-bannered sky, bending down to 

the sea, 
Where golden-crowned angels could plainly be 

seen 
With robings of white, in the glimmering 

sheen. 

Then Heaven was near, and the curtain of blue 
So thin, that at sunset the glory shone 

through ; 
Those silken illusions, inflated with joy, 
Phylosophy's hand has been swift to destroy ; 
And reason's keen steel, that's so cruelly cold, 
Has cut thro' the shimmer of heavenly gold, 
And left but the hard-featured science of light 
That will not be veiled for a dream of tonight. 



180 HAZEL BLOOM 



"Laugli and the world laughs with you; 
Weep and you weep alone." 

TN HER soul's secret temple she's standing 
-*- alone : 

Her being's real self, in the silence will bow; 
O'er that altar, once glowing, cold ashes are 
strown — 
Where sunshine once flooded, the shadows 
fall now. 



Away from the world, and alone with her God, 
She kneels in this consecrate place and may 
weep; 
This temple, by coarse sandaled grossness, un- 
trod. 
Is never unbarred till the world is asleep. 

She leaves there her grief, with its shadowy 
stole, 
Concealing her anguish, with trembling and 
fear j — 



HAZEL BLOOM 181 

Must laugh, tho' it lines a black scath on her 
soul, 
For the world will not pay for the sigh and 
the tear. 

Aye, leaves there her sackcloth and shuts to 
the door; 
She puts on the mask for the frivolous world 
Her frail barque is launched 'mid its tumult 
and roar — 
Unhelmed, thro' its mammon-cut channels 
'tis hurled. 

The laugh, the world echoes, grows empty 
and hard 
When the jingle of gold is the mirth-stirring 
power ; 
The soul is, by Avarice, shrivelled and scarred 
When it barters for pottage, a heavenly 
dower. 

God fits us, thro' suffering, for Sympathy's 
needs; 
'Tis warring with wrong that will win for 
the Eight ; 
Oft Sorrow's lone path, to^ His ripe vineyard, 
leads — 
Christ gave us, through Gethsame, heavenly 
light. 



182 HAZEL BLOOM 

Go work in His vineyard wherever 'tis needed 
And earnestly work for the sake of the need ; 

Be Fame's fickle promise forever unheeded, 
Unknown, in thy labor, the miser's low 
greed. 



HAZEL BLOOM 183 



ThRO' azure paths fair Venus comes with 
golden bars 
To close the gates of Day. The twilight's 
dusky stole 
Is lightly spangled o'er with heaven's brightest 
stars ; 
Soon Night will bring her countless ones 
whose ceaseless roll 
Thro' boundless depths of space, repeat crea- 
tion's song. 
Thus canopied by God's omnipotence, out- 
spread. 
The earth doth lull and soothe her surging, 
restless throng 
AVith brooding calm. Sleep's poppied sweets 
for toil are shed. 

When strife is hushed to rest, by Nature's 

drowsy hum 
And barter's dins are stilled — its flaunting 

ensigns furled, 
When, drugged with Somnus' wines, earth's 

noisy crowds are dumb 



184 HAZEL BLOOM 

And stillness spreads her slumber-robe, so 
softly o'er the world, 
'Tis joy to watch Night's queenly orb, climb 
up the eastern stair. 

And pour her flood of silver light o'er hills 
and bowers, 
That in the sacred silence gleam, so radiant 
and fair, 

In glistening robes of green and dewy, fra- 
grant flowers. 

All hail, blest hour of cool repose, when 
Labor's chains 
That bind the mind, thro' all the day, to 
weary tasks 
Are loosed! Ay, now, the soul, in freedom 
from their pains, 
May drink from founts of pure supernal joy. 
It basks 
In glories which the night o'er earth and sky 
hath strown. 
Compassion sweet, the dewy coolness doth 
impart 
And dreamy perfumes, by the balmy breezes 
blown, 
Are evening's sweet acopic, when she folds 
us to her heart. 



HAZEL BLOOM 185 



Y\ E PLANT sometimes a tender flower — 
Watch and wait through sun and shower ; 
Mark its tiny leaflets, green, 
Then, the upward shoot between, — 
Springing, springing, tendrils clinging, 
Hopes like cherubs round it winging 
Whispering of the blooming time. 

AYatch the buds burst thro' their sheathing, 
Beauty's promise, round them wreathing, 

Dream of fragrance they enfold, 

Lovely blooms, almost, behold. 
Reach an eager hand for grasping — 
Find the tendrils all unclasping — 

Withered, ere the blooming time. 



186 HAZEL BLOOM 



^SkXT A8~lheTe ever a love like the love of my 
dream? 
Love, holy, unselfish, devoted and pure, 
Unfailing and sweet as the flow of a stream 
Whose source is a spring, that God made to 
endure. 

A love that is love, with no blending of dross ; 

Where soul, unto soul, giveth strength of i ts 
own — 
A love that knows never of languor or loss. 

Or silently grieves that its spirit has flown. 

A love with its possibles nobly fulfilled, 

Where heart unto heart is e'er loyal and 
true. 
Where blessing for each, is thro' kindness dis- 
tilled— 
A rodomel never embittered with rue. 

A love that the angels, rejoicing to see, 

Would guard in life's paths from the harpies 
that roam ; 
Peace, Happiness, Charity, — loveliest three — 
Would make, for such lovers, a Heaven of 
Home. 



HAZEL BLOOM 187 



31 g^0^nd 0f Vtx^ gil»* 

ABROAD, June moon was brightly 
,^ beaming 

In the depths of heaven's blue, 
While the asphodels were bending 
With the clinging beads of dew. 
When the silver rays in silence. 

Glinting thro' the swaying trees, 
Saw a modest flower turning 
To a roving, balmy breeze. — 

Heard the zephyr softly whisper ; 

"Ah! my Lily, charming, sweet — 
Sure the god of love has led us 

In this bowery place to meet ; 
Richest odors I will bring you 

From the islands of the sea; 
Aye, your beauty has enchained me — 

Will you give your heart to me?" 

With a touch exquisite, subtile, 
Then he turned to his, her face ; 

In her blush of deeper crimson, 
That she faltered, he could trace. 



188 HAZEL BLOOM 

**I have sought you — will you trust me? 

Faithful as the stars I'll be — 
With your fragrant breathings, answer, 

Will you give your love to me?" 

Frail the flower, tranced enraptured 

By the lover's soft caress, 
To his tender wooing answered. 

With impulsive rashness, — *'yes." 
Then, exultant, zephyr gloried 

In the treasure he had won — 
Deftly stole her sparkling jewels. 

Sharing with the rising sun. 

Brushed the spangles from her tresses 

With his playful finger tips. 
Bolder grew with his caresses — 

Grathering sweetness from her lips; 
Eobbed her beauty of the freshness 

That was hers in early morn — 
Left her 'neath the sun of noonday. 

Burning like the gaze of scorn. 

Drooping as in heat of censure 
Evening found her in the dust, 

Lifted her with tearful pity 

From the blight of trampled trust; 



HAZEL BLOOM 189 

But the tender flush of loving 
From her face was blanched and gone, 

Yet a beauty, born of trial, 
Met the radiant glow of dawn. 

Now for her the moon is shining 

With a calm and holy light ; 
Dew-like gems of rarest beauty 

Sparkles on her brow at night; 
With her white face turned toward heaven 

In her vestal robe she stands. 
As a priestess, at an altar, 

Lifting consecrated hands. 

Chastest forms of beauty round her — 

Stars that gem the vaulted blue 
Join with her in silent warning, — 

'*Let thy love be pure and true — 
Trusting e'en the black-browed storm-cloud. 

With its leaping lightning-blaze, 
Eather than the rover's whisper, 

Neath the moon's enchanting gaze." 



190 HAZEL BLOOM 



®0 g:aw^^ ^^mi0n piatli^w^* 

MUST write a sonnet! — ere the Poet's 
^ rank, 

With its devouring hopes, I dare to claim — 
Ere I with them may seek a place or name — 
Ere I may taste Oastalia's fount, where drank 
The bards of eld, or find the flowery bank 
Of clear Penneus, flashing back the flame 
Of sunset fires. Thro' moorlands, low and 
dank, 
Alone, must grope, unlit by torch of fame. 

Tho' Poesy should stir my soul to song 
That flowed like liquid tenderness along. 
Or, wild and glad as leaping forest rills — 
Tho' N'ature's music thro' my being thiills 
And Imagery, with all her fairy throng, 

My dreamy world of thought and vision 
fills,— 
Alas! I'm doomed — this stanza is a line too 
long. 



*Yoti must write a Sonnet to gain a Poet's diploma." 

J.N. M 



HAZEL BLOOM 191 



YY^ILL the wrongs of life be righted, 

Fruited there the hopes here blighted, 
In the great hereafter? 
Will the darkened lives be lighted 
And dissevered souls united 

In the great hereafter? 

Will this wearing, wild commotion 
Sink to rest and sweet emotion 

Calm all strife hereafter? 
Will love's slighted, fond devotion 
Reach beyond life's tossing ocean 

To the great herafter? 

Will the vows here lightly broken 
With repentant tears be spoken 

In the great hereafter? 
The wounded one accept the token 
Of the heart's remorse unspoken 

In the great hereafter ? 

Gladly from its idols turning 
Will the soul forget its yearning 
In the great hereafter? 



192 HAZEL BLOOM 

Thro' a quickened sense discerning 
That the labors we've been spurning 
Keep loye's holy incense burning 
In the great hereafter? 

Shall we find that hopes deceiving 
Helped us on to grand achieving 

In the great hereafter? 
And be blest with glad receiving 
What is now but faith, believing 

In the great hereafter? 
Will the soul that's drunk the vial 
Of a bitter self-denial 

Feel the loss hereafter? 
Or, thro' sacrifice and trial, 
Will it triumph o'er Belial, 

In the great hereafter? 

Will the bands by dogmas riven 
Scathed and scarred by anger levin. 
Make a peaceful, joyous Heaven 

In the great hereafter? 
For the good for which they've striven 
Will their errors be forgiven 

In the great hereafter? 



HAZEL BLOOM 193 

There, with pomp, his work resuming 
Will the bigot, still presuming, 
God's prerogative assuming 

In the great hereafter. 
Sit as judge, his brother dooming, 
And with creed-lit torch reluming 
Fires of torture "unconsuming, ' ' 

Through the great hereafter? 

Will the Wrong, the Right assailing. 
Wring from suffering helpless wailing 

In the great hereafter? — 
Conquered Good, with banners trailing. 
Seeking streams for Hope's regaling, 
Be mirage-lured, till faint and failing, 
Faith becomes a phantom, sailing 

Through the great hereafter? 

Or, shall our spirit eyes beholding 
God's mysterious plans unfolding 

In the great hereafter. 
See His strength the Right upholding 
And his love the weak enfolding 

In the great hereafter? 



194 HAZEL BLOOM 

Struggling here with opposition, 
Grives, perchance, the strong volition 
Some may need for angel mission. 

In the great hereafter ; 
And the ills of life's condition, 
To the tried may bring fruition 
Of a joyous, sweet elysian 

In the great hereafter. 

What has seemed Pate's unfair dealing, 
May unveil, a joy revealing 

In the great hereafter : 
Though denying our appealing, 
Made in agony of feeling, 
God may still, with love's own healing, 
Higher destiny^ le sealing 

For the Great Hereafter. 



HAZEL BLOOM 195 



T^HE night was black — the dismal rain 

First dripped from sullen, inky clouds, 
And then was dashed against the pane. 

By winds that shrieked like demon crowds; 
When, on the midnight's ebon breast. 
The storm, a moment, lulled to rest, 
I heard this low, half stifled moan 
AVith sorrow braided in the tone — 
"Who cares for me? Who, who?" 

The lurid lightning's fitful glare 

Lit all the far, horizon's rim — 
It showed the walnut, stripped and bare. 

And clutching one great, leafless limb 
Sat something weird, of dusky form ; 
Defenceless, in the pelting storm, 

She faced alone that angry sky — 

October's voice seemed in the cry, 
"Who cares for me? Who, Who?" 

With rush and wrench an angered fiend 
The loosened shutters clanged and swung, 



196 HAZEL BLOOM 

His single stroke the grove had preened 
And wide its deadened branches flung, 

And from the wide, o'er-hanging eaves 

He tore the crimson ivy leaves 
And wildly whirled them on the blast — 
The phantom murmured, as they passed, 
''Who cares for me? Who, Who?" 

The maples writhed as, tempest torn, 
Their branches beat the gables high. 

And, in the storm's dark bosom borne. 
Mad thunders bellowed thro' the sky. 

She spurned the spruce, with stately form. 

Whose robes of green might shield and warm. 
And yet, like sobbing on the gale. 
Was monotoned that dismal wail, 
' ' Who cares for me? AVho, Who?' ' 

Again the leaping lightnings glared, 

The wind swept down the clinging vines, 
In twisting gusts the trees were bared. 

It rocked and tossed the rasping pines ; 
Unmoved, amid the tempest there, 
And as the wraith of grim despair, 

Still clutched the limb, that dusky form, 

Eepeating to the driving storm, 
"Who cares for me? Who, who?" 



HAZEL BLOOM 197 

The arbor gleamed with tangled vines, 

Where, erstwhile, hung, 'mid emerald 
sheen. 

The clustering wealth of unpressed wines ; 
And charms of scarlet, gold and green, 

With opulence of fruit and grain, 

Poured riches for October's reign ; 

Now, conquered, robbed, usurped her throne. 
Her sorrow welling in the moan, 
*'Who cares for me? Who, who?" 



The morning sun is mocking cold — 

The vanquished queen stands, pale, forlorn, 

Her gauzy veil of dream and gold. 
And royal robes, all rent and torn, 

AVtih bannerd glories, trampled down, 

To bring her victor's sparkling crown. 
She feebly smiles and passes on 
To join the old October's, gone — 
November wails — "Who cares." 



198 HAZEL BLOOM 



0, TELL me, rolling, tossing billow. 
Where thy place of rest may be ! — 
Who shall find, and who peruse them, 
Were these lines consigned to thee ! 
Will the wild winds catch and carry, 

'Mid the waves tumultuous roar. 
Leaving them where golden glory 
Flames along the sunset shore? 

Pillowed on thy throbbing bosom 

Where will this wee, waifling drift? 
Will an eager hand stretch for it. 

Thinking some strange tale to lift — 
A record brief of direst peril 

In a storm-wrecked sinking ship — 
The moment when all hope had left them- 

The tale ne'er told by human lip? 

Or, will thy rollng, rocking cradle 

Hold the casket unrevealed, 
Till thy wrenching, prying fingers 

Hath its secrets all unsealed? — 



HAZEL BLOOM 199 

Dropping then the worthless trifle 
Where wealth's storm- wrecked treasures 
lie, 

In thy mystic, wave-worn caverns. 
Hidden aye, from mortal eye. 



^0 HAZEL BLOOM 



OFT the heart is full of weeping 
When no tears escape the lids ; 
Bravely will stands guard o'er feeling 

And the tell-tale flow forbids, 
And for love of those who love us 

Every sign of sorrow hides, 
Counterfeiting joy and gladness 
Where in secret, grief abides. 

Though we try to gild with sunshine 

Thorny paths we needs must tread, 
Hiding, 'neath a show of courage, 

That we go with shrniking dread — 
Tho' we hush the sob of mourning 

For the strong true love we knew, 
Yet affections sacred altar 

With forget-me-nots we strew. 

Every sentient heart holds hidden, 
From the gaze of prying eyes. 

All its sorrows. E'en its raptures 
From such sharing it denies. 



HAZEL BLOOM 201 

Love of some and dread of others 
Shut the heart with bolts and bars ; 

We shrink to wound our loving dear ones — 
We dread the sympathy that jars. 

But, when night is darkly brooding 

Over earth with raven wings, 
Feeling may, with unseen fingers. 

Sweep the spirit's trembling strings. 
Then, within its secret chamber, 

May the heart's own words be said — 
There alone, with Love's one taper, 

All its bitter tears may shed. .J 



20*^ HAZEL BLOOM 



MY ROBINS are gone— 
^ The last one has flown ; 
With a pang in my breast 
I look into the nest 
And know I'm forever alone. 

The night will come in thro' the crimsoning 
west, 
Repeating that lesson of pain — 
^'The robin that once has flown out of the nest 
Seeks never its shelter again." 

My robins are gone, etc. 

0, glad was my heart with its fullness of love 
When fondly I cared for them all, 

But now I'm alone, in the shadowy grove, 
And they are too far for recall. 

My robins are gone, etc. 

The world was so wide, and the skies were so 
blue. 
They tempted my darlings away ; 



HAZEL BLOOM 203 

In the bright, dewy morning so buoyant they 
flew, 
Nor dreamed of the noon-heat of day. 
My robins are gone, etc. 

I'll stay by the lonely, embowered, old nest — 
Some stars will beam down thro' the night; 
I'll hush my heart's cry with a ''God knoweth 
best," 
And wait for the dawn of the light. 
Tho' my robins are gone, 
Tho' the last one has flown, 
They'll think of the tree 
That is sheltering me, — 
They'll be to me ever my own. 



204 HAZEL BLOOM 



OH! BEAUTIFUL winterbloom, why did 
you tarry? 
0, why in Spring's glory of budding and 
bloom, 
Were hidden your jewels, wee, golden and 
starry, 
To open them now, in November's chill 
gloom? 

The crocuses first heard the warm breezes call- 
ing, 
The dandelions glowed in their emerald sea 
And lilies, sun-kissed, in the lakelets were 
lolling — 
All Flora's enchantments were beckoning 
thee. 

When June, in soft airs, swung her rose- 
freighted censer, 
And dew gems were set with the buttercup's 
gold— 



HAZEL BLOOM 205 

The annual bloom, growing brighter and 
denser- 
Why still, from the summer, your beauty 
withhold? 

**When Spring in her gladness poured beauty 
around you, 
And joy bells rang with most musical tone. 
When opulent Summer with riches had 
crowned you. 
My coming had then been unheeded, un- 
known. 

Now flowers of springtime and summer have 
left you. 
The winter's foreclosure has shadowed the 
home — 
Of the last clinging leaves the cold winds have 
bereft you — 
As a friend in Adversity, now I am come." 



206 HAZEL BLOOM 



T^HE empty hammock, in the grove, 
The playful breeze is swinging — 

Wild birds, of varied note and plume, 

In Babel jargon singing, 
Come boldly near my silent door. 

And e'en the woodland thrushes 
Pour forth for me, their floods of song. 

In sweet, melodious gushes. 

And nearer still, the squirrels come, 

Among the walnuts leaping. 
And gather in their winter stores 

Without the toil of reaping. — 
The tennis plot is overgrown 

With long, untrodden grasses — 
Above it hangs, from unpruned boughs. 

Their foliage wealth in masses. 

The lichens lengthen on the trees — 
They blotch, with gray, the fences 

And prove decadence is of years. 
Whatever our pretenses ; 



HAZEL BLOOM 20'f 

The storm-worn roof and gables all 

Suggest inceptive mosses — 
The ample house, with silent rooms, 

Hope's argosy and losses. 

The shrubs that once bore stately bloom 

Are now a bushy tangle. 
Where tribes of beetles, thro' the spring, 

O'er blighted beauty wrangle; 
And goldenrod, with kindly grace. 

Hides, with her shining tassels, 
Neglected spots, where once was built. 

Young Fancy's airy castles. 

The bell, that called the dinner hour 

With deep, re vibrant clanging. 
Is woven round with maple boughs, 

Its stranded rope, down-hanging. 
Has won a morning-glory bloom 

To twine its frayed out fringes, 
And trumpet vine creeps o'er the gate 

To hide its broken hinges. 

Now silence reigns where once was heard 
The ring of childish laughter ; — 

They'll come no more — "our little boys" — 
In all the years hereafter ; 



208 HAZEL BLOOM 

Yet winds oft join with listless mood 
To cheat me with the seeming — 

A dimpled hand tugs at the latch — 
But ah ! 'twas only dreaming. 

They're out upon the field of Life 

Where blades of strength are clashing, 
Where true and false contend for aye 

With thought's bright spear-points flashing, 
And we must hush love's hunger-cry 

And still the selfish yearning — 
Must hide the heart's fond worship, tho' 

Its altar fires are burning. 

But mother-love can make her strong 

To check her own heart's throbbing. 
And bid them go with steady voice 

While selfs in secret, sobbing; 
Then she will whisper broken words 

Alone with God in prayer. 
And find that heavenly blessing falls 

For every cross we bear. 



HAZEL BLOOM 209 



®<75ACKWAED, backward Thought has 

■*^ traveled, 

Back into the dim unknown, 
AVhen the spheres in cosmic star-dust 

Circled His eternal throne — 
Back where cosmogonic darkness, 

Wrought upon by Spirit light, 
Yielded elemental centers 

And protoplastic satelite. 

Back, where first creative forces. 
By impulsion from **The Cause," 
Start the aniverse in motion. 

Guided by unerring lawvS — 
Hurl the spheric fiery masses 

Thro' abysmal depths of space — 
Meting out to each an orbit 

With defined, unchangnig place. 

Thought, from thence, fares down the aeons 

Thro' the long chaotic night, 
While His omnipresent agents 

(Each a vast deific might) 



210 HAZEL BLOOM 

Fashion to His will and purpose 

Thro' infinitude of spheres; 
In our own group change evolving 

Till Earth's infant life appears — 

Till creation felt Time's fullness, 

Surging thro' unmeasured night, 
That should rend the swathe of vapors 

With command — "Let there be Light- 
Felt the rolling, tossing tumult 

Of the fierce, internal sweep 
When the thunder-toned volcanos 

Lfited lands from shoreless deep. 

Then, from formless void emerging. 

Earth spread wide her fields and hills, 
Woke the untrod glooms with music 

Of her new-born leaping rills ; — 
Then the firmament, in grandeur. 

Lit its unveiled depths of blue 
With the moon in full-orbed beauty 

And the young stars beaming through. 

And the sunshine thrilled earth's bosom. 
Quickened germ-imprisoned life — 

Soon the hillsides and the valleys 
Were with floral beauty rife ; — 



HAZEL BLOOM 211 

Forests robed the mountain ranges, 

Bound their sun-croT\ned brows with green, 

While the migthy, sea-fed rivers 

Rolled in majesty between. 

******* 

Farther on in Life's gradations 

He who tuned the spheric roll. 
Back in Nature's barred Arcana, ^ 

Gave and clothed the human soul. 
Hush, oh thought, nor dare to question 

Hotv creative laws adjust ! 
.Canst thou comprehend Jehovah 

Or the elemental '*dust?" 

Here, oh spirit, rest with child-faith; 

Covet not forbidden things. 
Life, the vainly sought for secret, 

Proof, to us, of Godhood brings — 
Of the Infinite, beyond us — 

Far beyond the grasp of mind; — 
Kneeling, trusting, here we worship 

God — Jehovah, Undefined. 



213 HAZEL BLOOM 



O'ER the stormy, pathless seas, 
Nobly proud, the Genoese 
To a shadowed realm sailed ; 
With a will to brave and bear, 
Sought he chance to do and dare, 
'Mid the perils he must share 
That Earth's grandeur be unveiled. 

Pilgrims sailed to lighted shores, 
Hope and Home with open doors. 
But thro' dusky deeps, unknown. 
Boldly this explorer plowed. 
Facing danger's darkling crowd 
And Fate's looming, gestant cloud, 
From the waste of waters blown. 

Heaven gave to him a soul 
Finely fashioned to control 
With a wondrous spirit might — 
That should sweep of doubt and fear. 
Broad and bright, a pathway clear — 
By it lift a hemisphere 
Into Freedom's joyous light. 



HAZEL BLOOM 213 

Purpose, daring were sublime — 
His the crowning deeds of Time ; 
Life, for others' gain, was spent 
Opening Earth's great treasure-doors — 
Half a world with Bounty's stores — 
Mountains, rich in precious ores — 
Caves with sparkling gems besprent. 

Justice gave unquestioned claim 

To the highest niche of Fame, 

But what recompense was Spain's? 

She, thro' craven sons of lust, 

Honor stabbed, with feigned distrust — 

Trampled his great soul in dust. 

Scorned and loaded him with chains. 

Now she comes to steal his bones : 
Earth revile ! In thunder tones 
Tell the tale of wrong and shame ; 
Write this edict out in flame — 
In the hemisphere he gave, 
(Which he begged might be his grave) 
She, of Greed, the wasted slave. 
Shall have nevermore a name. 



MAR 2B 1899 



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